
Cfass. 
Book- 



COPYRIGBT DEP0S11 




Cl)«... 

Vukon°€ariboO'Brjti$l) Columbia 
6old mining Development €o. 

Capital, $5,000,00' 
Shares, |i.oo e 

FULL PAID NON-ASS 

The Company has placed exploring parties in the Gold 
Regions of British Columbia, including the Cariboo Dis- 
trict, and the marvellously rich Klondike district, at the 
head waters of the Yukon River. Each corps is in charge 
of a mining engineer, fully equipped for successful dis- 
covery and development. 

There are no promoters' shares or concealed profits. 
Every share issued will be paid for in cash at the price 
of the public subscription — one dollar per share. 

Prospectus and additional information furnished and 
subscriptions to stock received at the offices of the com- 
pany. 



Manhattan Life Building, 66 Broadway, New York 

Harrison Building, 1500 Market St., Philadelphia 

J. EDWARD ADDICKS CHAS. H. KITTINQER 

President Secretarj^ 



Colored map of the Gold Fields sent free on application. 



Captain Jack Crawford 
Alaska Prospecting and Mining Corporation 

Capital Stock, $250,000 
Incorporated under yew JTersey Tiavos 



Shares, $io each Pull paid Non-assessable 
There are only 25,000 shares 

Pa3^able in full at time of subscription or in instalments if preferred 



Who has not heard of Captain Jack ! An expert mining 
prospecter and developer through all parts of the West and the 
Cariboo Placer Mines of British Columbia — being one of the original 
discoverers of gold in the Black Hills in 1876, and first bringing 
before the public the immense mineral wealth of Nevp Mexico, and 
drawing capital to its development. 

Loved and honored by Army men for his uprightness and 
integrity, high in the regard and trust of the newspaper profession, 
he can count among his friends most of the prominent men in the 
country — beginning with President McKinley. 

A master pioneer — -experienced, vigorous and shrewd — he will 
lead and direct under this Corporation an expedition of practical 
and expert miners in the new Alaskan Gold Fields. Mother lode 
claims will be taken up for this Company, to be sold at enormous 
profits, often without expending much capital in their development. 

Stockholders can rest assured that reports from the field of 
operation over Captain Jack's signature will be authentic and 
trustworthy. 

Write for Prospectus or call for further information at the 
offices of the Company, American Tract Society Building, 150 
Nassau Street, New York City. 

CAPTAIN JACK CRAWFORD QEN. HORATIO C. KING 

President and Gen. M'g'r Vice-President 

There are no promoters' shares. Every 
nhare issued will be 2^aid for in cash. 






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Fenno's Illustrated and Select Series 
RETAIL, so CENTS 



Bertram Mitford 

Jules Claretie 

W. Clark Russell 

Hilton Hill 

M. T. Gagneur 



The King's Assegai 

Crime of the Boulevard 

What Cheer 

Eyes That Do Not See 

A Nihilist Princess 

A Daughter of the Philistines Leonard Merrick 

Kitty the Rag . . . . . Rita 

Uncle Scipio . . Mrs. J. H. Walworth 

the Desire of the Eyes . . Grant Allen 

The Golden Butterfly . . Walter Besant 

Robert Urquhart . . Gabriel Setoun 

The Lady Maud . . W. Clark Russell 

The Betrayal of John Fordham B.L. Farjeon 



Two Sieges of Paris 

A Living Lie . . 

The Unclassed, Illus. 

Fernando de Lemos . 

Aubert Dubayet . 

The Heart of a Mystery 

Captain Antifer, Illus. 

liomoselle 

Jack Horner 

Strange Tales of a Nihilist 

The Wages of Sin 

The flan in the Iron flask, illus 



G. A. Henty 

Paul Bourget 

George Gissing 

Charles Gayarre 

Charles Gayarre 

T. W. Speight 

Jules Verne 

Mary S. Tiernan 

Mary S. Tiernan 

Wm. Ive Queux 

L/Ucas Malet 

Alex. Dumas 



Louise de la Valliere, Illus. Alexandre Dumas 
Ten Years Later, Illus. Alexandre Dumas 

The Vicomte de Bragelonne, Illus. Alex. Dumas 
The Firm of Girdlestone, . A. Conan Doyle 
Urith: A Tale of Dartmoor, Illus. Baring-Gould 



3 



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KLONDIKE 



A MANUAL FOR GOLDSEEKERS 



(. 



BY 



CHARLES A. BRAMBLE, D.L.S. 

Editorial Staff Engineering and Mining Journal, late 
Crown Lands Surveyor, Dominion of Canada 




NEW YORK 
R. F. FENNO & COMPANY 

9 and ir EAST i6th STREET 



^.-^ 



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Copyright, 1897 

BY 

R. F. FENNO & COMPANTf 



> 



^ 



Klondike; A Manual for Goldseekers 



\^ 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

A Word to the Reader. 3 

Introduction 5 

The Country 11 

The Klondike Trail 67 

Life at the Diggings 120 

The Gold 155 

Mining Methods 195 

Prospecting 223 

The Climate 232 

The Outfit 251 

The Mounted Police 282 

Canadian Mining Laws 290 

Customs, Regulations, etc 304 

Diseases of the Country 306 

Miscellaneous 311 



A WORD TO THE READEll. 

Just now all eyes are turned toward the gold- 
en valley of the Yukon. No possible doubt ex- 
ists that one of the richest, if not absolutely the 
richest, placer deposits ever discovered has been 
found within the past year in far-away Alaska. 

At the present moment, therefore, such a book 
as this is wanted, especially as a flood of cheap, 
unreliable "Yukon" literature has been put 
upon the market. My experiences in the North- 
west Territories and Canada have enabled me to 
select only what is valuable from amid the vast 
quantities of matter already published. My 
knowledge of mining and of the Northwest has 
been fully as much exercised in eliminating false 
statements as in accumulating paragraphs of 
worth. 

I claim little as original in this book, but I ex- 
pect it nevertheless to be of very great value to 
any prospective gold seeker who shall aim at ac- 
quiring some of the virgin gold of the North. 
Chas. a. Bramble, 
D. L. S. 



INTEODUCTIOK 

A CLEVER California writer has said no one 
should venture to set out for the Alaska diggings 
without a good pardner. The word must not be 
confounded with partner. Partner has a smart, 
business-like sound. It is precisely defined by 
law, and though it may by courtesy involve some- 
thing of special favor, its equities at last rest 
upon the decisions of courts without regard to 
sentiment. But a pardner glories in sentiment. 
He expects to give his mate all that the law re- 
quires and call that only a beginning. Men may 
be chums in easy, prosperous times, but it is not 
until they pass together through a succession of 
dangers and hardships that they become pardners. 
Congeniality and implicit confidence are at the 
base of a pardnership; and for better or for worse 
the two men stand as one under all vicissitudes, 
doubling each other's Joys and dividing sorrows 
and failures. If one falls by the way the other 
gives him more than the devotion of a brother. 

Gold mining eventually is a business conducted 
by large capital, but placer diggings afford an 
opening to any one who can stake and work a 



6 Introduction. 

claim. The two pardners begin operations on 
the ground-floor, share their discoveries, tent to- 
gether, and cook for each other. Their qualities 
and traits are complementary. Pardners are 
closer than mess-mates in the army or navy. 
The soldier or sailor is under the care of a boun- 
tiful provider. His food, clothes and shelter are 
furnished by the government, and his comings 
and goings are regulated by orders. Pardners, 
on the other hand,- must skirmish together from 
the start for subsistence and plans of operation. 
They fight the battle of life for two under haz- 
ardous conditions, far from families and friends, 
satisfied for the time being with bare necessi- 
ties. Under such a test pardners are forged as 
steel is forged. It is not likely that the mining 
camps in Alaska will permit any one to starve, 
but they have a regulation for shipping those 
lacking means or resources out of the country. 
In a community of pardners a high sense of gen- 
eral humanity will prevail, but there must be 
prudence as to feeding drones during the long 
season when the lines of supply are interrupted. 
Alaska will furnish a great growth of friendship, 
with the pardner as its top flower. No man can 
utterly fall there who has a good pardner, and is 
one. 

The following condensed Alaskan "nuggets" 
have been culled from various sources: 



Introduction. 1 

The first discovery of gold on the Klondike 
was made in the middle of August, 1896, by 
George Oormack. 

The only way heretofore into and out of the 
Klondike in winter has been by way of Juneau. 

The best way to live is to imitate the Indians 
in dress and habit. It is useless to wear leather 
or gum boots. Good moccasins are absolutely 
necessary. 

The colder it is the better the traveling. 
When it is very cold there is no wind; and the 
wind is hard to bear. 

Indian guides are necessary to go ahead of the 
dogs and prepare the camp for night. In the 
summer the sun rises early and sets late and 
there are only a few hours when it is not shining 
directly on Alaska. In the winter the sun shines 
for a short time only each day. 

It is 2,500 miles from San Francisco to St. Mi- 
chael's. It is 1,895 miles from St. Michael's to 
Dawson City. 

In summer the weather is warm and tent life 
is comfortable. The winter lasts nine months. 
There are two routes by which to reach Dawson 
City. One touching St. Michael's Island and 
the other via Juneau. By steamer it costs $150 
to go from San Francisco to Dawson City. 

Dogs are worth their weight in gold. A good 
long-haired dog sells for $150 or $200. 

The Yukon Kiver is closed by ice from Novem- 
ber to the latter part of May. On the Klondike 
the thermometer goes as low as 60 degrees below 
zero. 

There is a great variety of berries to be 
found all through the country in summer. Game 



8 Introduction. 

is very scarce near the mines. Vegetables of the 
hardier sort can be raised. Stock can be kept by 
using care in providing abundantly with feed by 
ensilage or curing natural-grass hay and by 
housing them in the winter. In summer abun- 
dance of fine grass can be found near the rivers. 

In appearance the natives are like the North 
American Indians, only more lithe and active, 
with very small feet and hands. They live in 
temporary camps both winter and summer, either 
in the mountains or on the river banks, accord- 
ing to the habits of the game they are hunting. 

Gold was first discovered in the vicinity of 
Sitka by Frank Mahoney, Edward Doyle and 
William Dunlay, in 1879. 

As regards the strictly American possessions 
the following are worth remembering: 

Purchased in 1867 from Eussia, for $7,200,000; 
purchase negotiated by William H. Seward. 
Area in square miles, 531,409. 

Population, census of 1890, 30,329, of whom 
but 4,416 were whites, 8,400 Esquimaux, and 
13,735 Indians. Estimated present population 
40,000. 

Principal cities, Sitka, the capital, Juneau, 
Wrangel, Circle City. Principal rivers, the 
Yukon, more than 2,000 miles long; the Kuskok- 
wim, the Colville and the Copper. Principal 
mountains. Mount Logan, altitude, 19,500 feet; 
Mount St. Elias, 18,100; Mount Wrangel, 17,500 
feet. 

Principal occupations of the people, hunting 
and fishing. 

Gold first discovered in 1879. Estimated prod- 
uct of gold to date, 130,000,000, Product of 
gold in 1896, $4,670,000. 



Jnt/roducUon. 9 

Klondike in English is Fish Eiver. Klondike 
gold fields are in British territory, and the prod- 
uct is disposed of in the United States. 

The scene of the present excitement is along 
the upper Yukon and its tributaries. 

It takes at least six weeks to reach the Klon- 
dike from Seattle by water, and thirty or forty 
days by the Chilkoot Pass route. 



KLON^DIKE. 



THE COUNTRY. 

Alaska's chief river, the Yukon, is one of 
the grandest streams on the continent, and in 
size is surpassed only by the Mississippi, if, in- 
deed, it is not the larger — at least, in point of 
volume. At the old Hudson Bay post, Fort 
Yukon, now abandoned, the river attains its 
northermost latitude, being just within the 
Arctic circle. 

At a point just above Fort Yukon the river has 
been found to have a width of seven miles. Just 
above Fort Yukon the channel of the river is 
subject to frequent changes by reason of shifting 
sand, but this offers the only considerable obstacle 
to navigation from the mouth of the Yukon to 
Fort Selkirk, a distance of 1,600 miles. 

Such is the volume of water discharged by this 
mighty stream that it is said that fresh water is 
found in the ocean ten miles out from the chief 
mouth of the river. The entire length of the 
river is estimated at not less than 3,000 miles, and 
the probability is that it is much greater. 



12 Klondike. 

Those who have traveled some of the navigable 
portion of the river describe the Yukon Valley as 
most beautiful in scenery, fully equaling, even 
exceeding, anything offered by natural scenery in 
the United States. The boundary of the upper 
part of Alaska Territory between the United 
States and Canada, from Mount St. Elias to the 
Arctic Ocean, is very clearly defined in the treaty 
as the 141st meridian. The only difficulty about 
this part of the line is in locating that meridian. 
There is some slight difference between the 
American and Canadian surveys, but that difEer- 
ence can be easily settled. 

It has been stated by Canadian newspapers to 
involve a strip not more than sixty feet wide at 
the point where the line crosses the Yukon. 
Some question has arisen from the fact that in 
the treaty the meridian was described as crossing 
Mount St. Elias, whereas it has since been found 
to be a little east of that peak. 

The treaty between Great Britain and Eussia 
made in 1825 provided that the line should start 
from the southernmost point of Prince of Wales 
Island and ascend to the north along Portland 
Channel, as far as the 56th degree of north lati- 
tude; thence should follow the summit of the 
mountains parallel to the coast as far as the point 
of intersection with the 141st degree of west 
longitude. Wherever the summit of the moun- 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 13 

tains parallel to the coast proves to be more than 
ten marine leagues from the ocean, the boundary 
line is to parallel the windings of the coast not 
more than ten marine leagues therefrom. 

But a very limited section of this vast area, 
which was purchased by the United States from 
Kussia in 1867 for $7,200,000, is known to civi- 
lized man. The far greater portion is as yet un- 
explored. The territory, according to the latest 
figures, comprises 580,107 square miles. The 
mere figures convey but a faint conception of its 
extent. The Territory of Alaska has an area 
very nearly equal to the combined areas of Con- 
necticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Flor- 
ida, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Massachussetts, 
Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New 
York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, 
South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, 
and West Virginia; it nearly approximates one- 
fifth of the area of all the rest of the United 
States. Alaska's coast line on the mainland is 
about 7,860 miles, or greater than the eastern 
coast line of the United States. The coast line 
of the mainland and islands is nearly four times 
as great as all the other coast lines of the United 
States combined. 

Dr. Dawson, who made geological explorations 
in the upper Yukon region, testified as follows: 
"With regard to the gold on the Liard Kiver, 



14 Klondike. 

which is a tributary of the Mackenzie, I may- 
state further that remunerative bars have been 
worked east of the country down toward the 
Mackenzie. The whole appearance of this coun- 
try leads to the belief that important mineral 
deposits will be found in it besides those placer 
mines. There are large quantities of quartz 
ledges along the rivers in many places on the 
Liard Eiver; half the river gravel is composed of 
quartz, and the whole country is full of quartz 
veins, some of which are likely to yield valuable 
minerals." 

Q. Is it a gold-bearing quartz? 

A. Yes; because we find gold in the bars, 
though not, so far as I have discovered, in the 
loose quartz. In fact, the whole country at the 
headwaters of the Liard, and running across to 
the Yukon, forms part of the metalliferous belt 
which runs from Mexico to Alaska and includes 
a great area of that country which is as likely to 
be rich in minerals as any portion of that metal- 
liferous belt. We should remember that in Brit- 
ish Columbia and on the headwaters of the 
Yukon we have from 1,300 to 1,300 miles of that 
metalliferous belt of the west coast. This" is al- 
most precisely the same length of that belt con- 
tained in the United States, and I think there 
is every reason to believe that eventually it will 
be found susceptible of an equal development 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 15 

from a mining point of view. From circum- 
stances to which I need not now refer, it has so 
far been more developed in the United States 
than on this side of the line. 

Q. What is the average width of that belt of 
1,200 or 1,300 miles? 

A. About 400 miles on the average. Fort 
Selkirk, or the ruins of Fort Selkirk, at the 
mouth of the Lewis Eiver, which is one of the 
main branches of the Yukon, is about 1,000 miles 
due north of Victoria, without taking into ac- 
count ten degrees of longitude which it is west, 
but it gives an idea of the depth of the country 
which is worth remarking. You find a country 
here 1,000 miles north of Victoria in which there 
is no doubt you can still grow barley and hardy 
cereals, a distance as nearly as possible identical 
with the whole width of the United States on the 
Pacific coast from the 49th parallel to Mexico, 
yet at Fort Selkirk we are still 750 or 800 miles 
from the Arctic Ocean — nearly twice as far from 
the Arctic Ocean as we are here in Ottawa from 
the Atlantic. 

Q. That would make a square area of 520,000 
miles. Is that what the committee are to under- 
stand? 

A. That will express the area of the metallif- 
erous belt in a general way, and may be taken as 
a minimum figure. This Yukon country was first 



16 Klondike. 

prospected in 1880, by miners who came across 
by this Chilkoot Pass. Since then a yearly in- 
creasing number of miners has been going in. 
This last summer there were about 250 men, 
nearly 100 of whom are wintering at Forty-Mile 
Creek, near the international boundary. The gold 
which was taken out of that country last summer, 
not counting the Cassiar country to the south, 
but merely the Yukon district, was estimated by 
the miners at 170,000, but that is a very rough 
estimate indeed, because there is no way of 
checking it except by allowing so much per man 
on the average. There is an almost unprece- 
dented length of river bars from which gold is ob- 
tained in that country. I have not tried to esti- 
mate it, but here and there on nearly all those 
rivers gold is found in paying quantities. The 
gold-bearing river bars must be reckoned in the 
aggregate by thousands of miles in length. 

Q. All those rivers, meaning the Yukon and 
its branches, and the Liard and its branches? 

A. Yes. 

Though the Coppermine Eiver lies east of 
the Mackenzie and far from the Yukon, it may 
be interesting to give here the testimony of Dr. 
Dawson in regard to copper in that river. He 
said, speaking of the Coppermine Eiver particu- 
larly, that "there is every reason to believe there 
is a repetition along that river and in its vicinity 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. lY 

of those rocks which contain copper on Lake 
Superior, and which have proved so rich there." 
But that region seems to be beyond the reach of 
the prospector at present. 

*'l see a good many newspaper criticisms in 
which the prophecy is ventured that not more 
than one-tenth of the parties going to Alaska 
'will come back prosperous,' " said one returned 
Yukoner. "This is a mistake. There is no ques- 
tion of their finding gold in any part of the 
Yukon Valley, the only question being whether 
they can find it in paying quantities. It is 
there, everywhere. We traveled over 1,000 miles 
of the interior and found gold wherever we dug 
for it. 

"I never in all my life saw a country where 
there is so much and so many variations of light 
as in Alaska. I don't think it ever rains in the 
interior. The sun shone with dazzling brilliancy 
during our entire trip, and no sooner had it set, 
than the aurora borealis overspread the skies 
with its fantastic and shifting colors. At night 
it was truly a country of fairyland, the shadows 
and tones of these northern lights being simply 
wonderful. I have seen them so bright that I 
could read by their light. 

"I believe that I stated to you that the inte- 
rior is destitute of game. This is true, with but 
one exception. The Yukon Kiver is full of little 



18 Klondike. 

black ducks during the summer. They live on 
mussels and are continually diving for them. 
They are far from being wild, and I have seen 
them swim up close enough to touch our canoe 
lots of times. They are not good eating, how- 
ever, having a rank, fishy taste. 

"There seems to be but three varieties of vege- 
tation in the interior. Fir and yellow cedar 
forests cover the land, and the rank, waist-high 
moss. It resembles more nearly some variety of 
cactus, and is so full of saws, prongs, etc., as to 
be impenetrable. The cedars and firs are none 
of them very large, but appear to be very old, 
some, perhaps, having grown there for ages." 

A correspondent of the Washington Evening 
Star, says: "It is not necessary for everybody to 
feed on dog meat on the Upper Yukon Eiver and 
in the vicinity of the Klondike gold field in win- 
ter, as a member of the party which was up there 
said several of the members did. He refused 
the dish, but at the same time he acknowledged 
that more than once after food had been thrown 
to the dogs, literally speaking, he had snatched 
it away from them before they could eat it. 
Eish which small worms had appropriated to 
themselves he did not hesitate to eat, he said, 
and was glad to get it. 

"That is one of the great troubles which will 
be encountered by persons visiting the gold 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 19 

fields. The further up the Yukon one travels 
the scarcer becomes the food supply, until in the 
Klondike region and thereabouts it ceases almost 
entirely. There is practically no large game, 
with the exception of one or two moose and rein- 
deer, which have become separated from the rest 
of the herd and wandered out there. So that 
prospectors who intend visiting the field should 
not rely in the least on the resources of the coun- 
try to feed them. There may be a few rabbits, 
ducks and geese in the spring, which disappear 
very quickly. These are not sufificient to supply 
even the wants of the few natives who wander 
nomadically about the region." 

Lower down the Yukon, at certain seasons of 
the year, there is abundance of game, probably 
from 400 to 500 miles from the Klondike River. 
The moose is about the largest of the animals, 
while the reindeer is fairly plentiful. As the 
population has increased, the game has corres- 
pondingly decreased, and in the winter the 
Indians there have a hard time securing food, 
as they are- very improvident. During the 
season when it is abundant they never think of 
laying by a supply. There are beavers on the 
streams, and various kinds of deer, bear, and 
caribou. In the winter months these go south 
or disappear almost entirely. The polar bear 
is found several degrees further north, never ap- 
pearing in that vicinity. 



20 Klondike. 

In the mountain streams which feed the Yu- 
kon Eiver, up toward its head, near the Kathul 
Mountain, there are mountain trout of good size 
and flavor. Many of these streams dry up in the 
^winter, as they are fed by glaciers, which, of 
course, in cold weather are frozen entirely. The 
salmon is found in the Yukon in immense num- 
bers in summer. The whitefish which is found 
near the Klondike Eiver, is said to be excellent 
eating. It ranges in size about the same as our 
black bass, and is one of the chief mainstays of 
the Indians. In winter, if it is not too cold, 
holes are cut in the ice, and the fish pulled out by 
means of bone hooks. They are more plentiful 
than any other kind, and the ice-cold water ap- 
pears to be their natural habitat. 

Early in the spring water lowl, such as ducks, 
geese and swan, put in an appearance, but they 
do not tarry long, and wend their way after a 
stay of only a few days. They are very plenti- 
ful when they do appear, and the natives kill 
them by hundreds. The trouble is, however, 
that things of the kind do not last as they do in 
warmer climates. 

Keindeer formerly were seen in very large 
numbers on the Yukon, some two or three hun- 
dred miles from where the Klondike flows into 
it, and a gentleman who spent two or three win- 
ters there several years ago has stated that he had 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 21 

seen a herd of at least 5,000 cross the river on 
the ice in one day. 

Klondyke would-be prospectors should bear in 
mind the fact that in that region, where game is 
scarce, the appetite is something wonderful. All 
kinds of food are eaten with relish, particularly 
anything that has fat or grease about it. The 
sharp air increases hunger nearly a hundred fold, 
and it is necessary to have plenty of provisions 
in order to withstand temperatures sometimes 
as low as 68 degrees below zero. Persons who 
have passed the winter there state that it is 
much better not to touch alcoholic liquors, as 
the after effects from indulgence in them are 
much worse than any benefit which may be de- 
rived from temporary stimulation. 

Tea is considered one of the best things which 
can be taken, and it is drunk in large quantities, 
strong, and as hot as possible. This seems to 
keep the heat in and the cold out better than 
anything else. All kinds of canned goods are 
excellent, and dried fruits or lime juice should 
be included in every bill of fare, as scurvy is pre- 
vented by making use of them. It is necessary 
to use large quantities of salt meats, which often 
produce the disease. 

It it believed by travelers up the Yukon Eiver 
that vegetables that grow rapidly could be raised 
profitably in the summer months. Potatoes, it 



22 Klondike^ 

is thought^ conld be brought to fruition without 
trouble, and turnips also. The latter have been 
raised successfully by missionaries 400 or 500 
miles or so from the source of the river. The 
sun there has naturally very much power in 
the three or four months of summer, and in 
hothouses lettuce and other vegetables could be 
raised easily. 

When Humboldt expressed the opinion that 
gold came from the north he did not adduce 
much evidence in support of his theory. We 
have had a wonderful demonstration of the truth 
of his suppositions in the Yukon Valley. 

The more we reflect upon the extraordinary 
gold deposits there, the more bewildered we be- 
come. Every claim which has been operated on 
the gold-bearing creeks has become a producer. 
We have yet to hear of a single locator who 
failed to find gold if he went down to bed rock. 
There are a great many claims yet to hear from 
upon which no work has been done yet, and as 
there are winter diggings, we shall not hear from 
these for a long time yet. Experience proves 
that mines in a mineral country are discovered 
in proportion to the number of prospectors out. 
It is therefore quite reasonable for us to assume 
that we shall hear some interesting news from 
the interior, when the hundreds of miners who 
have recently gone down the river have had time 



A Manual for Gold ISeeTcers. 23 

to spread themselves over the country. The 
district in which Bonanza and Eldorado Creeks 
are situated forms but a small portion of an im- 
mense mineral belt. The few hundred men who 
were in the country at the time the discovery 
was made took up claims one after the other on 
the creeks which were known to carry gold, and 
in many instances sold them for large sums with- 
out putting in a pick or panning out a shovel full 
of gravel. Of these, some remain to live a life 
of hilarity at Dawson, and others, more prudent, 
are coming out with their fortunes intact. Such 
was the conditions of affairs before the popula- 
tion of the district was augmented by the spring 
arrivals. Now there will be vigorous and sys- 
tematic prospecting done, and the country will 
be closely examined for many miles around the 
present diggings. Hitherto the best results have 
been obtained in the fall, and we may look with 
some certainty for a result from this summer's 
prospecting. 

Even in the most favorable of times the life of 
a miner on the Yukon could not be an easy one. 
A practical mining-engineer publishes, in one of 
the Ottawa papers, a catechism which, he says, 
every would-be gold-hunter should ask himself 
before he starts: 

''Have I a capital of at least $500? Am I 
subject to any organic or chronic disease. 



24- Klondihe. 

especially rheumatism? Am I physically sound 
in every way and able to walk thirty miles a day 
with a fifty -pound pack on my back? Am I 
willing to put up with the rough fare, sleep 
anywhere and anyhow; do my own cooking and 
washing; mend my own clothes? Can I leave 
home perfectly free, leaving no one dependent 
on me in any manner for support? Can I do 
entirely without spirituous liquors? Can I work 
like a galley-slave for months if need be, on poor 
fare, and sometimes not enough of that, and still 
keep up a cheerful and brave spirit? Am I 
pretty handy with tools and not subject to lazy 
fits? Can I swim, and handle boats and canoes; 
put up with extremes of heat and cold, and bear 
incessant torture from countless swarms of mos- 
quitoes, gnats and sand-flies?" 

For men who are healthy and strong, who love 
adventure and beautiful scenery, who have 
money to keep themselves for two years — or more 
if they don't make a strike — for such men to go 
into this country is all right, and a good thing. 

Owing to the gold discoveries at Klondike 
much interest is lent to any fresh information 
regarding that region. The official report made 
to the census oflSce in 1890 contains a mass of 
information bearing indirectly on the general 
section of the country in which the Klondike is 
situated, and the appended extracts will be 
found worthy of attention. 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 25 

The mighty stream known as the Yukon does 
not appear by that name on the map until the 
confluence of the Pelly and Lewis Kivers is 
reached, about longitude 137 degrees 3 minutes 
west, in British Northwest Territory. Both of 
the latter are large rivers. The Lewis Eiver is 
the best known, having been used for the past six 
years as the highway from southeastern Alaska to 
the gold diggings on the Yukon, near the east- 
ern boundary of Alaska. Its length from Lake 
Lindermann, one of its chief sources, to the 
junction with the Pelly is about 375 miles, and it 
lies entirely in British territory, with the excep- 
tion of a few miles of the lakes at its head. 

The Pelly Eiver takes its rise about Dease 
Lake, near the headwaters of the Stikine River, 
with a length of some 500 miles before joining 
the Lewis to form the Yukon Eiver. The union 
of these two streams forms a river varying from 
three-quarters to a mile in width. For many 
miles the northern bank is a solid wall of lava, 
compelling the swift current to follow a westerly 
course in search of an outlet to the north. The 
southern bank is Comparatively low, formed of 
sandy, alluvial soil. A few miles above the 
White Eiver the stream takes a northerly course 
through a rugged, mountainous country, receiv- 
ing the addition of the waters of the White Eiver 
on the south, so called from the milky color of 



26 Klondike. 

its waters, and a few miles further on the 
waters of the Stuart on the north. The 
current is exceedingly swift here, especially at 
a high stage of water, as I saw it, being at 
least six or seven miles an hour. From Stuart 
Kiver to Fort Keliance both banks are closed in 
by high mountains, formed chiefly of basaltic rock 
and slaty shale. Many of the blufis are cut and 
worn in the most picturesque shapes by glacial 
action. At Fort Eeliance, an abandoned trading 
post, the general course of the stream changes 
to northwest, continuing thus for a distance of 
about 500 miles, or as far as the confluence with 
the Porcupine Eiver, which flows from the north. 
Some forty miles from Fort Eeliance the 
mouth of Forty-Mile Creek is passed, where is 
located the miners' trading post. On that creek, 
or river, we find the chief gold diggings known 
at the present time. Some thirty-eight miles 
from there the river crosses the eastern boundary 
of Alaska. Here was located for the last two 
seasons the camp of one party of the Alaska 
boundary survey, it having been previously the 
camp of the Canadian government party. For 
100 miles after crossing the boundary the river 
runs in one broad stream, confined on either side 
by high banks and a mountainous country, known 
as the "upper ramparts." It then widens out, 
and for a distance of 150 miles is a network of 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 2Y 

channels and small islands. At old Fort Yukon, 
an abandoned Hudson Bay post, it attains its 
highest northern latitude, being just within the 
Arctic circle. From main bank to bank the dis- 
tance has been found to be seven miles at a point 
just above the site of Fort Yukon. This place is 
probably the only serious obstacle to navigation 
that is met with from its mouth to Fort Selkirk, 
a distance of over 1,600 miles, the channel here 
shifting from year to year, and being at certain 
stages of water diificult to find. From Fort Yu- 
kon to the mouth the river has been frequently 
traveled and described, rendering further de- 
scription unnecessary. Without actually taking 
measurements it is exceedingly difficult while 
traveling on the river to determine the immense 
volume and magnitude of the stream. 

The population of the Yukon country is very 
sparse. At certain times during the year a trav- 
eler might pass down the Yukon from Forty- 
Mile Creek to Nuklukayet and hardly see a score 
of natives in a distance of 800 miles. The dif- 
ferent villages or communities seem to be under 
the guidance of chiefs and subchiefs, though 
there does not appear to be much authority ex- 
erted by them, and I could never ascertain that 
this chieftainship was hereditary. 

Their mode of transportation in summer time 
is by rafts, boats, and birch-bark canoes, and is 



28 Klondike. 

entirely confined to the streams and water 
courses; in the winter time sleds are used, drawn 
by dogs, men or women. Their language is 
known to the missionaries as a dialect of Tukudh 
(Takuth), but they converse with the traders in 
a jargon called "Slavey," a mixture of Canadian 
French, and hybrid words of English, something 
in the nature of the "Chinook" of Southeastern 
Alaska. 

In winter a species of mudfish called blackfish, 
found in the lakes, is a great food source, being 
caught in quantities in traps during the fall and 
winter, allowed to freeze and then eaten raw. 
Large quantities of water fowl eggs are obtained 
in season, also the birds themselves, it being the 
summer home of many varieties of ducks, geese, 
swans, and other aquatic fowl. In winter the 
only means of traveling is in sleds drawn by 
dogs. 

Mining cannot be called a success on the 
Yukon up to the present time. Since the first 
excitement in 1886, there have been few instances 
of individuals taking out of the country more 
than 12,000 for two, and even three seasons of 
privation and hardship. There are but a few iso- 
lated cases of more than that amount being 
taken out. The majority of the miners are 
working on prospects with a heavy account at 
the store against them. The hardships of travel- 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 29 

ing to prospect, the short working season, and 
the frozen ground are obstacles difficult to over- 
come. The prices of supplies at the store are 
high considering the small means at the disposal 
of the miners, but they are not much more than 
barely remunerative to the trader, owing to the 
expense and risk of transportation. 

The merchandise is carried on the river by 
means of stern-wheel steamers, the two prin- 
cipal ones belonging to the Alaska Commercial 
Company; one of 200 tons and the other of 30 
tons capacity, carrying freight and passengers. 
On the larger boat there is a white man for 
captain and another for engineer; but both 
captain and engineer are unlicensed and with- 
out papers; the rest of the crew are Indians. 
There are three other small steamers, two be- 
longing to the Eussian and Catholic missionaries 
respectively, and one to the trader at Fort Sel- 
kirk. All supplies are received at St. Michael, 
on Norton Sound, 80 miles north of the mouth 
of the Yukon, the furs and gold obtained being 
turned over to the Alaska Commercial Com- 
pany's agent there, and shipped to San Fran- 
cisco. Once a year, in June, missionaries and 
traders assemble at St. Michael, and for a few 
days that place is doing a rushing business. It 
has ^become a regular fair for the natives, who 
gather in numbers from various points on the 



30 Klondike. 

coast and river, getting a few days' work from 
the company and having the satisfaction of see- 
ing the new stock of merchandise. 

The influx of miners in the country'has pro- 
duced marked changes among the natives, and 
not to their benefit morally. The illicit manu- 
facture and use of liquor, both by the traders of 
the company and miners, is certainly demoraliz- 
ing the natives to a great extent. It is openly 
carried on both on the upper and lower river. 
At Andreafsky, on the lower river, it is a com- 
mon sight to see intoxicated [^natives, more 
especially in the winter, and the natives have 
now learned the process of making liquor for 
themselves, more particularly on the coast, and 
on the lower Yukon. 

On the coast the temperature varies from 70 
degrees Fahrenheit in summer to 40 degrees and 
45 degrees below zero in winter. The late sum- 
mer and fall is usually stormy and wet, the snow- 
fall in winter being from three to five feet on a 
level. Navigation is closed to the outside for 
seven months in the year by heavy ice on the sea. 
The Yukon Eiver is closed by ice from Novem- 
ber to the end of May. In the interior the 
climate is drier and warmer in summer, but 
many degrees colder in winter, the thermometer 
going as low as 60 degrees below zero. The 
snowfall is excessive, but less wind prevails here 
in winter than on the coast. 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 31 

In speaking of the physical features of the 
great Yukon Valley and of its native inhabitants 
I prefer to begin with the coast region and 
deltoid mouth of the river, following it up and 
giving my impressions just as they struck me 
during my gradual, frequently interrupted, ad- 
vance from the low seaboard to the rocky gorges 
of the upper river. 

The observant traveler, standing upon the 
deck of one of the small stern-wheel boats labor- 
iously pushing its way against the powerful cur- 
rent of turgid, rolling waters, will be struck with 
the immense area of alluvial soil which has been 
carried bodily for centuries and ages from the 
far interior to the verge of Behring Sea. The 
land here is being made and unmade under our 
very eyes. The ice-laden freshets of each re- 
turning spring never leave unchanged the con- 
tour of the shores which but imperfectly confine 
the rushing waters. A solid cake of ice, caught 
in an eddy and set into swirling motion, grinds 
against the loosely constructed bank, and under- 
mines it until a mass of sand or clay falls down 
upon it. The impetus given by the precipatated 
earth drives the ice cake out of the eddy and 
sends it adrift upon the current, to be carried on 
and on, until stranded again upon the low 
beaches of the delta, or some distant island of 
the sea, when its cargo of soil will be deposited 



32 Klondike. 

as a gift of the great Yukon. On the other 
hand, land-making is going on just as constantly. 
The accidental lodgment of one of the gnarled 
giants of the inland forests on its way seaward 
may cause the formation of a muddy bar or 
island within the space of a few years. Thickets 
spring up from twigs of willow deposited by the 
passing flood, or from seed carried by the wind, 
and strengthen the new ground, binding to- 
gether its component parts with their roots until 
it can resist the ordinary pressure of rushing 
flood and grinding ice. Even a sudden rise of a 
few feet in the water, or an unusually heavy for- 
mation of ice on the upper river may undo in a 
few moments what nature has been years in 
creating. The little island will then dissolve 
like snow before the sun, and its component 
parts be torn away, and carried suspended in the 
raging flood uatil the neutralizing action of op- 
posing tides causes them to settle and scatter 
broadcast over the shallow bottom of Behring Sea, 
contiguous to the great river's mouth. 

Under more congenial skies this vast accumu- 
lation of the richest soil would doubtless attract 
a teeming population; and who knows whether 
this mighty water power may not now be build- 
ing for the future, when some slight deviation in 
the axis of our whirling globe may unlock the 
icy fetters that now bind the land, compelling 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 33 

man to rely upon the products of the sea alone 
for his subsistence, and teaching him to look but 
for scanty favors from Mother Earth. Should 
that time come in some far distant period, there 
will be here a field of agricultural wealth and 
greatness surpassing in range and possibilities 
that of the acient Nile. The very sea is aiding 
in building up and enriching this possible gran- 
ary «of future geologic ages, by sending its finny 
denizens by countless millions up into every vein 
and artery of the vast, surging and throbbing 
water system, impregnating both soil and water 
with minute deposits of highly fertilizing quali- 
ties. 

The main features of the boundary line be- 
tween Alaska and Canada are the irregular line 
extending from the head of Portland Inleb in 
latitude 56 degrees, around the waters of the 
great archipelago Alexander, at a distance not 
greater than ten marine leagues from the con- 
tinental shore, to the 141st meridian west of 
Greenwich, and the straight line running thence 
to the Arctic Ocean on that meridian. Where 
this irregular line meets the 141st meridian rises 
the great Mount St. Elias, which is in latitude 
60 degrees 17 minutes and 34.4 seconds, and lon- 
gitude 140 degrees, 55 minutes and 19.6 seconds. 
This peak is about twenty-seven statute miles 
from the ocean shore. 



34 Klondike. 

From a point on the 141st meridian and prob- 
ably in nearly the same latitude as Mount St. 
Elias^ the boundary line runs true north to 
Demarcation Point on the Arctic shores — a dis- 
tance of 660 statute miles. 

In this great distance the line crosses compar- 
atively few large streams; at 100 miles it crosses 
the head waters of the White Eiver, a tributary 
of the Yukon, flowing to the north-northwest; 
at 205 miles, an unnamed tributary of the White 
Eiver. At the last distance on the boundary 
line the Yukon Eiver lies forty miles to the east- 
ward at a well-known bend and gorge known as 
the Upper Eamparts. The river continues on a 
northerly course nearly parallel with the bound- 
ary line for seventy-five miles to old Fort Eeli- 
ance, near the Klondike, and thence trends 
seventy-five miles northwest by north, to where 
the boundary line crosses it at 335 miles from 
Mount St. Elias. The boundary line next crosses 
a little-known river called the Big Black, 
a tributary of the Lower Porcupine, at 445 
miles; and the Porcupine Eiver, one of the 
great tributaries of the Yukon, at 510 miles; this 
is the last river of much size that it encounters. 
As it runs northward it meets the upper waters of 
the Old Crow Eiver, which heads in Turner's 
Pass of the Davidson range; crosses this great 
range at 595 miles, where the elevation was esti- 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 35 

mated by Turner to be 7,000 feet; and at 660 
miles reaches Demarcation Point on the Arctic 
shore, about 150 miles west-northwest from the 
delta of the Mackenzie Eiver in Canada. 

This boundary line traverses an almost un- 
known country; it passes over mountain ranges, 
reaching 10,000 feet elevation; and the country 
is utterly impassable for the first 100 miles north 
of the St. Elias range. The longest stretches of 
reconnaissance on the line were made by young 
John H. Turner, of the Coast and Geodetic Sur- 
vey, from Camp Colonna on the Porcupine, which 
is sixty miles north of the Arctic circle. With 
three aids and dog teams he crossed the hitherto 
unknown Davidson range, at the pass named after 
himself, at an elevation of 3,500 feet, encounter- 
ing one blizzard when the temperature was 50 or 
60 degrees below zero. His second trip was forty 
miles south of his camp, toward his colleague, 
John E. McGrath, at Camp Davidson on the 
Yukon. He thus reconnoitered 200 miles of the 
boundary line, through a country never before 
traversed by a white man, and in his zeal con- 
tracted a chronic disease, which carried him off 
two years after his return home. 

Where the Yukon crosses the boundary line its 
course, which is northwest by north from Fort 
Eeliance, continues in a general direction to the 
northwest for 235 miles to the deserted Fort 



36 Klondike. 

Yukon at the mouth of the Pordpine. All that 
part of the Yukon Eiver to the eastward of the 
141st meridian, and all its principal tributaries 
come from the southeastward; the principal 
river under different names reaching within a 
few miles of the head waters of the Stickeen. 
The headwaters of the main tributary, the 
Lewis River, reach nearly into Alaska Territory 
at the White Pass, the Chilkoot Pass and the 
Chilkat Pass, just north of Lynn Canal. 

The geographical position of Fort Reliance, an 
old station of the Hudson Bay Company, on the 
right bank of the river, is latitude 64 degrees 13 
minutes, longitude 138 degrees 50 minutes, or 50 
statute miles east of the boundary line of the 141st 
degree. The stream named Klondike Creek 
enters the Yukon about six or eight miles higher 
up than Fort Reliance, and on the same side of 
the river. So far as known it comes from the 
east-northeast for about one hundred miles, and 
is reported navigable by canoes for forty or fifty 
miles from its mouth. 

Whatever doubt has been cast upon the posi- 
tion of the whole Klondike district being in Brit- 
ish Columbia must have arisen from a misunder- 
standing of the dispute existing upon the proper 
location of that part of the boundary line lying 
eastward and southward of Mount St. Elias. 
The north or meridian line of the boundary has 



A Mcmual for Gold Seekers. 37 

been accurately determined at three points — near 
Mount St. Elias, at the crossing of the Yukon 
Kiver, and at the crossing of the Porcupine Kiver. 
The determination of the southern end was made 
in 1892 by John E. McGrath and John H. 
Turner, of the United States Coast Geodetic 
Survey, in combination with a hydrographic 
party, which carried chronometers for the diUer- 
ence of longitude between Sitka and Yakutat. 
At Sitka was Fremont Morse, of the Coast Sur- 
vey. At the Yukon Eiver Mr. McGrath and 
party spent two years at Camp Davidson, twenty- 
three miles below Forty-Mile Creek, observing 
meridian transits of the moon, and occultations 
of stars by the moon, for longitude. His observ- 
atory being a little distance off the 141st 
meridian, he measured to that meridian and 
marked it. Mr. Ogilvie, on behalf of the Cana- 
dian Government, also observed for the longi- 
tude at another and independent point, and then 
measured to the 141st meridian. 

The latest information places the two inde- 
pendent determinations of this meridianal 
boundary line within the width of a few feet. 
So there cannot be the remotest possibility of any 
friction between the two governments upon this 
question. We know the strong and high character 
of Mr. McGrath, and Mr. Ogilvie has likewise 
a reputation of the highest character. The only 



38 Klondike. 

local dispute that could possibly arise would be 
in the Forty-Mile Creek district; because the 
boundary line crosses sharp, steep, mountain 
ridges 2,500 and 3,000 feet high and an inferior 
instrumental means might cause a slight doubt of 
the direction in some case. However, no dispute 
has arisen in the district, nor is it likely that any 
will occur. There is no doubt that the line has 
been satisfactorily laid down by Mr. Ogilvie or 
some of his assistants. 

In quitting the subject, the longitude station 
of Mr. Turner may be referred to. After ob- 
taining a series of satisfactory results he made a 
topographical reconnaissance of the Porcupine to 
its mouth, a distance of 140 miles as the crow 
flies. 

There is little doubt that the Klondike gravel 
deposits, as far as they go, are the richest ever 
discovered. In the early days of placer mining 
in California as rich deposits were found in 
pockets here and there, but never extensive 
deposits which averaged as high. There have 
come no competent opinions or accounts from 
mining experts, and there are at hand no state- 
ments of what any of the deposits have averaged 
to the cubic yard or ton, but the stories of the 
generally inexperienced miners, the results in 
gold dust, and the prices of $50,000 or more 
for which claims have been sold, establish the 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 39 

general richness of the fields. The excep- 
tional concentration of alluvial gold is undoubt- 
edly due to the geographical, or rather topo- 
graphical conditions under which nature washed 
the gold into the big sluices, which the valleys 
are in effect. Descriptive accounts by intelli- 
gent mining engineers, mineralogists, and geol- 
ogists, will be read with great interest whenever 
they arrive. 

The Klondike fields are comparatively limited 
in extent. The Klondike is a small tributary of 
the upper Yukon, and the richest deposits are 
found in the beds of some of the short and small 
creeks that empty into it. Whether any other 
placers as rich exist in that region remains to be 
seen. The placers which have been worked with 
fair success for five or six years by an increasing 
number of men are in the beds of water courses, 
fifty to a hundred miles down the Yukon on the 
Alaskan side of the boundary, and close to the 
point where the boundary, the Yukon Eiver and 
the Arctic circle cross each other. These have 
now all been abandoned for the far richer dig- 
gings found fifty miles or so across the boundary, 
as it is unofficially supposed to be located. 

For the time the placer diggings engross atten- 
tion, but more significant than the gold found in 
the frozen gravel of the water courses is the evi- 
dence they present of the existence of rich quartz 



40 Klondike. 

ledges, from which the gold has been eroded. 
The veins from which nature has milled this gold 
are hidden somewhere above, and will be found. 
A great quartz-mining development in the inte- 
rior of Alaska, and in the most northerly region 
of the Northwest Territory, may be confidently 
predicted. No quartz ledges have yet been 
found, and none have been looked for. There 
are the most insuperable difficulties presented by 
any gold region of the world to overcome before 
the era of quartz-mining makes a faint begin- 
ning. 

The country is extremely difficult to prospect. 
The summers are short, the ground is covered by 
thick, stunted growths and tangled moss, and 
is perpetually frozen a little under the sur- 
face. The transportation of anything in the 
way of mining machinery would now be 
enormously expensive. But the quartz-mining 
era will come. Already coal deposits of value 
are announced. The Government of British 
Columbia is moving to accede to the popular de- 
mand for the opening of a trail to the new region 
through British territory, and already the rail- 
road, which would be pushed north with the aid 
of provincial subsidies if sufficient resources were 
discovered, is vaguely talked of. Rich veins of 
gold, quartz-mills, and railroad locomotives inside 
the Arctic circle reasonably meet the prolonged 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 41 

vision. A few months ago a member of the 
United States Geological Survey, who made a 
superficial reconnaissance of the Yukon country, 
predicted the discovery of quartz veins through- 
out a region 300 miles long. 

The Yukon country presents strange and new 
problems for mining engineering. Present oper- 
ations are of the crudest, and the gold-pan stage 
of development has not been passed. The rich 
gravel lies a few feet under the streams, which 
are frozen up most of the year. The gravel has 
to be mined out during the winter, when every- 
thing is frozen solid, by sinking shafts and drift- 
ing in below the frozen streams, by alternately 
thawing the ground with fires and hoisting the 
dirt to the dumps. When capitalists get hold of 
some of the richer claims, and send in skilled 
mining engineers, there will be a field for ingenu- 
ity and reports of much scientific interest. 

Professor J. Edward Spurr, of the United 
States Geological Survey, has this to say about 
the Yukon district: 

*'Our party crossed to the headwaters of the 
Yukon by the Chilkoot Pass, and proceeded by 
boat down the Yukon to Forty-Mile Creek. All 
of the known placer deposits were examined, and 
the origin of the gold in them was traced to 
veins of quartz along the headwaters of the vari- 
ous streams entering the Yukon. 



4:2 Klondihe. 

**Suflficient data was secured to establish the 
presence of a gold belt 300 miles in length in 
Alaska, which enters the Territory near the 
mouth of Forty-Mile Creek and extends west- 
ward across the Yukon Valley to the lower 
ramparts. Its further extent is unknown. It is 
the opinion of the geologist in charge of the ex- 
pedition that it is entirely practicable to prose- 
cute quartz mining throughout the year in this 
region. He discovered along the river large 
areas of rocks containing hard bituminous coal. 
Eunning in a direction a little west of northwest 
through the territory examined is a broad, con- 
tinuous belt of highly altered rocks. To the east 
this belt is known to be, contiauous for 100 
miles or more in British territory. The rocks 
constituting this belt are mostly crystalline 
schists associated with marbles and sheared 
quartzites, indicating sedimentary origin for a 
large part of the series. These altered sedimen- 
tary rocks have been shattered by volcanic action. 

"Throughout these altered rocks there were 
found veins of quartz often carrying pyrites and 
gold. Many of the veins have been cut, sheared 
and torn into fragments by the force that has 
transformed sedimentary rocks into crystalline 
schist, but there are others containing gold, 
silver and copper that have not been badly 
broken. 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 43 

"These more continuous ore-bearing zones have 
not the character of ordinary quartz veins, al- 
though they contain much silica. Instead of the 
usual white quartz veins the ore occurs in 
sheared and altered zones of rock, and gradually 
runs out on both sides. So far as is known these 
continuous zones of ore are of relatively low 
grade. Concerning the veins of white quartz 
first mentioned, it is certain that most of them 
which contain gold carry it only in small quanti- 
ties, and yet some few are known to be very rich 
in places, and it is extremely probable that there 
are many in which the whole of the ore is of 
comparatively high grade. 

"The general character of the rocks and of the 
ore deposits is extremely like that of gold-bear- 
ing formations along the southern coast of 
Alaska, in which the Treadwell and other mines 
are situated, and it is probable that the richness 
of the Yukon rocks is approximately equal to 
that of the coast belt. It may be added that the 
resources of the coast belt have been only par- 
tially explored. 

"Since the formation of the veins and other de- 
posits of the rocks of the gold belt an enormous 
length of time has elapsed. During that time the 
forces of erosion have stripped oif the overlying 
rocks and exposed the metalliferous veins at the 
surface for long periods, and the rocks of the 



4A Klondtke. 

gold belt, with the veins which they include, 
have crumbled and been carried away by the 
streams to be deposited in widely different places 
as gravels, or sands, or mud. In Alaska the 
streams have been carrying away the gold from 
the metalliferous belt for a very long period, so 
that particles of the precious metal are found in 
nearly all parts of the Territory. 

*'It is only in the immediate vicinity of the 
gold-bearing belt, however, that the particles of 
gold are large and plentiful enough to repay 
working under present conditions. Where a 
stream heads in the gold belt the richest diggings 
are likely to be near its extreme upper part. 
This upper part of the current is so swift that 
the lighter material and the finer gold are car- 
ried away, leaving in many places a rich deposit 
of coarse gold, overlaid by coarse gravel, the 
pebbles being so large as to hinder rapid trans- 
portation by water. 

"It is under such conditions that the diggings 
which are now being worked are found, with 
some unimportant exceptions. The rich gulches 
of the Forty-Mile district, and of the Birch Creek 
district, as well as other fields of less importance, 
all head in the gold-bearing formation. A short 
distance below the heads of these gulches the 
stream valley broadens, and the gravels contain 
finer gold more widely distributed. 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 45 

"Along certain parts of the stream this fine 
gold is concentrated by favorable currents and is 
often profitably washed, this kind of deposit com- 
ing under the head of bar diggings. Gold in 
these more extensive gravels is often present in 
sufiicient quantity to encourage the hope of suc- 
cessful extraction at some future time when 
work can be done more cheaply and with suitable 
machinery. The extent of these gravels which 
are of possible value is very great." 

The future agriculturist and stock-raiser in 
the region of which Dawson is now the gilded 
capital, must take into consideration the long 
and severe winter season, and the frozen moss- 
covered ground. The land, however, can be 
made serviceable by turning the surface moss 
and opening the soil to the influence of the sun 
and air in summer time. In this way some 
small areas have been brought under cultivation. 

The returned miners report that many large 
stretches of burnt country have undergone a 
complete change of vegetation after two burn- 
ings. 

The cereals have hardly been experimented 
with, though there is a tradition that the Hud- 
son Bay Company at Fort Yukon had a small 
quantity of barley coming to maturity. 

Barley has been raised in small quantities at 
Fo'^y-Mile Creek. Potatoes b'"fe done well at 



46 Klondike. 

all points on the river, but the seed has been 
difficult to obtain. 

Stock can be kept by using care in providing 
abundant winter feed by ensilage, or curing 
natural grass hay, and housing it in the winter. 

In summer time an abundance of the finest 
grass is to be found almost everywhere for hun- 
dred of miles in the neighborhood of Dawson. 

The ingress of gold-seekers along the Klondike 
has visibly affected the modes of living among 
the natives, who are now forsaking their more 
primitive habits for those of the miners. At 
Forty-Mile Creek members of the Takudh tribe 
have built themselves log cabins which they in- 
habit the year round, and they fully appreciate 
the advantages of stoves and clothing from "the 
States." The younger Indians are more fastidi- 
ous in their dress than the average white man. 
They are industrious an.d fairly enterprising, 
many of them working successfully at mining 
for wages paid by the whites, and some are min- 
ing on their own account. 

As far back as 1860 a deposit of gold was 
found in the basin of the Yukon by a prospector 
named George Holt. He also reported the find- 
ing of coarse specimens along the Hootalinqua 
Eiver. But it was the discovery of gold near 
Sitka in 1873, followed by the finds in the vicin- 
ity of Juneau in 1890, that drew attAtition to the 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 47 

possibilities of the newly acquired Territory of 
Alaska as a gold-producing country. The great 
abundance of gold was first made known by 
Joseph Juneau, who prospected in the region 
around the city bearing his name. In 1885 min- 
ing prospectors began to scatter themselves 
along the rivers Pelly and Hootalinqua, and in 
the year following much mention was made of 
the Stuart Eiver as a field for the enterprising 
gold-hunter. Rich strikes were made in 1892 by 
prospectors along Miller Creek, a tributary of 
Sixty-Mile Creek. The progress made in finding 
gold along the Alaskan and British Columbian 
Rivers, although giving high promise of future 
discoveries of gold, was not followed by any- 
thing which created a widespread adventurous 
spirit among people who were outside the min- 
ing region. 

To the daring spirit of Peter the Great belongs 
the honor of the Russian expeditions which led 
to the discovery of Alaska. The czar conceived 
the ambitious project of founding an American 
Russia, and thus extending his dominions over 
three continents. The leadership of these ex- 
plorations he intrusted to Vitus Behring, a Dan- 
ish captain in the Russian service. On February 
5, 1725, the expedition set out overland through 
Siberia, and three days later the czar died, but his 
instructions were faithfully carried out by Cath- 
erine, his wife, and Elizabeth, his daughter. 



'48 Klondike. 

This arduous work of exploring the Siberian 
coast and waters continued for sixteen years be- 
fore the Alaskan coast was sighted. The second 
Kamschatkan expedition was six years in cross- 
ing Siberia. It was in the spring of 1714 that 
Behring and his lieutenant Chirikof put out into 
Behring Sea, whose waters his chief had discov- 
ered on a previous expedition. They had two 
small vessels. One was commanded by Behring, 
the other by Chirikof. The little craft became 
separated at sea, and were never reunited. 
Chirikof bore away to the east, and during the 
night of July 15, 1741, sighted land in latitude 
55.21. It was afterward disclosed that this was 
thirty-six hours in advance of Behring's discovery 
of the mainland of America. 

Chirikof sent a party ashore in one of his 
small boats, to explore the immediate country 
and secure fresh water. Soon after leaving the 
vessel they passed around a rocky point and dis- 
appeared from sight. As they failed to return 
at the appointed time, another boat's crew was 
sent ashore. Soon a great smoke was seen aris- 
ing from the shore, and two large canoes, filled 
with threatening natives came out from the land. 
They refused to board the strange ship, and it 
dawned upon Chirikof that all the men he had 
sent ashore had been massacred. This reduced 
his crew to small numbers, and Chirikof decided 
to return to the Kamsch?^'^an coast. 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 49 

The return voyage was attended with frightful 
hardships and suffering. Scurvy attacked the 
men, many died, and the others were rendered 
helpless by sickness. After weeks of this suffer- 
ing, the vessel reached the Kamschatkan coast, 
with only the pilot on deck. Chirikof was one 
of the first stricken with scurvy, but recovered. 

Behring's party suffered even greater hardships. 
After sighting the coast and making a landing, 
Behring gave orders to lift anchor and return to 
Kamschatka. The ship became lost in the maze, 
of islands, and was wrecked upon a barren is- 
land. There the survivors passed the winter, 
many of them dying. Caves were dug in the 
sandbank of a little stream, and a scanty and un- 
certain food supply was obtained by killing sea 
animals and resorting to the flesh of dead whales 
cast upon the beach. Behring died on this island 
December 8, 1741. 

In the spring the handful of survivors con- 
structed a boat from their wrecked vessel and 
succeeded in working their way back to the 
Siberian coast, where they were received with 
great rejoicing, having long been given up for 
dead. 

Among the peoqle who have just returned 
from the new Klondike gold mines are men who 
had been for more than ten years facing the 
dangers and hardships of the frozen North in 



50 Klondike. j] 

the hope of making a rich find, and signally 
failed. Now they come back with fortunes 
stowed in their gripsacks and stories of untold 
millions to be picked up in the country of which 
so little is known. The new El Dorado lies just 
across the Alaskan boundary, in British terri- 
tory. It is of recent discovery; but already there 
are at least 5,000 people on the ground, and 
more are flocking in that direction. The dis- 
covery of the Klondike region presents a story 
that is uncommonly interesting. Around Forty- 
Mile Camp, on the Yukon, is a tribe of Indians 
known as the Slickers, and with them is a man 
who, years ago, was known as George Cormack, 
but who is nov/ called "Slick George." In Sep- 
tember last, at the head of a party of Indians, 
he left his hut near Forty-Mile Camp, and 
started in a southerly direction, saying that he 
intended to find a new gold field before his re- 
turn. He came back two weeks later and 
startled the miners with the announcement that 
forty miles away there was gold to be found in 
plenty. The streams abounded with the yellow 
metal, and all that was needed was for somebody 
to pick it up. Many persons flocked to the 
place, and in time the word reached Forty-Mile 
Camp that untold riches could be found along 
the bottom of Bonanza Creek and its tribu- 
taries. Men who had failed at the former camp 



A MamLol for Gold Seekers. 51 

immediately packed up their belongings and set 
out for the new fields. It was a hard and trying 
journey, but that was nothing with the promise 
of millions at the end of the route. 

The Yukon Eiver, which crosses Alaska from 
east to west and empties into the Pacific a little 
south of Behring Strait, is said to be a mightier 
stream than the Columbia. Eiver steamers nav- 
igate it hundreds of miles from its mouth. Pas- 
sengers from Seattle are usually transferred from 
ocean steamshijis to these vessels at St. Michael's 
Island, near the mouth of the Yukon. The 
source of the river is in British territory, 200 or 
300 miles south of the point where the stream 
crooks away westward into Alaska. In fact, it 
may be said to drain very nearly the same moun- 
tain slopes as the Fraser, Columbia, Peace, and 
Stickine. It was natural, therefore, to expect 
that gold would be found along the main chan- 
nel of the Yukon or some of its tributaries. 
Explorers were sent out from two bases. One 
set went up the river from its mouth, traversing 
the whole of Alaska from west to east, and 
another pushed up from the south, from the vi- 
cinity of Juneau, through Chilkat Pass. An 
American company established trading stations 
near the source of the river five or six years ago. 
Most of the prospecting has been done either be- 
tween this locality and the point where the river 



62 Klondike. 

crossed into Alaska, or -witliin the first 100 miles 
over the line. Fine gold dust in small quanti- 
ties was found at the mouth of the Porcupine 
Eiver, a stream that joins the Yukon about 100 
miles west of the boundary, and also near the 
mouth of Forty-Mile Creek, most of whose course 
lies in Alaska, but which crosses into British ter- 
ritory before emptying into the big river. Fort 
Cudahy is situated here, and Circle City, where 
there were other mining camps, is about fifty 
miles further west. These places are about 1800 
or 1900 miles from the sea, if one travels by 
steamboat, and in the winter are completely cut 
off from the outer world. The Klondike Eiver is 
not to be found, or, at least, is not easily identified 
on most maps; it is a small stream, like Forty- 
Mile Creek, and discharges into the Yukon not 
many miles from the eastern boundary of Alaska. 
Still, Seattle papers advertise transportation to 
the Klondike region to Fort Cudahy and Circle 
City, by ocean steamers that transfer to river 
boats at St. Michael's Island! 

The district is intersected by the 65th 
parallel of north latitude, and has an Arctic 
climate. The gravel is frozen solid all the year 
except for a few weeks, or at most two or three 
months, and has to be thawed out in some way 
before the gold can be separated. The streams 
which supply the water for washing the dirt also 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 53 

freeze up. Hence placer mining must be con- 
ducted there under great disadvantages. The 
new camp is peculiar for several reasons. The 

nadian provincial police do not allow the men 
to carry arms. If the miners get drunk and 
fight they use their fists, and the land laws are so 
good that no claim-jumping is possible. Daw- 
son City now has 4,000 people, and it is ex- 
pected that 2,000 more will swarm in before snow 
flies and the trail from Juneau is closed for the 
winter. 

The strike was made in the Klondike region 
in August and September, 1896, but the news 
did not get even to Circle City until December 
15, when there was a great stampede over the 
300 miles intervening between there and the 
newer fields. During the winter, when the 
streams entering into the Klondike were frozen 
solid, work in 100 claims was prosecuted, and 
heaps of frozen gravel were piled up on the 
banks of the streams awaiting to be thawed out 
in the spring. The gold is found under from 12 
feet to 20 feet of sand and gravel at the bed of the 
creek. Through the ice the miners burned 
holes with fire, and then blasted out the pay dirt 
on the benches of bed 'rock. On August 12 
George Cormack made the first great strike on 
Bonanza Creek, and on August 19 seven claims 
were filed in that region. Word got to Forty- 



64 Klondike, 

Mile and Circle City, but the news was looked 
upon as a rumor. On December 15, however, 
authentic news was carried to Circle City by J. 
M. Wilson, of the Alaska Commercial Company, 
and Thomas O'Brien, a trader. 

The towns of Circle City and Forty-Mile, on 
the Yukon, were deserted a week after the news 
reached there late in the spring, and the residents 
adjourned en masse to the Klondike. 

The country covered by Klondike camp is small 
in ares, extending from the mouth of the river 
only nine miles west. There is an immense 
reach of country beyond which has not as yet 
been prospected. At this rate Alaska's popula- 
tion will be trebled in a year. Those who made 
the 300 miles first struck it richest. Of all the 
200 claims staked out on the Bonanza and Eldo- 
rado Creeks not one has proved a blank. Not 
less than 300 claims have been staked out. The 
largest nugget yet found was picked up on Claim 
No. 6, on the Bonanza, and was worth $260. 
Some have brought out but a portion of their 
clean-up, preferring to invest other portions in 
mines they knew to be rich. Among the most 
lucky are J. J. Clements, of Los Angelos, who has 
cleaned up about 1170,000; he brought out $50,- 
000 and invested the rest; Professor T.C. Lippy, 
of Seattle, who brought out about $50,000 and 
claims to have $150,000 in sight, and thinks his 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 65 

mine is worth $500,000 or more; William Stan- 
ley, of Seattle, who cleaned up $100,000, and 
Clarence Berry, the same. All this gold is the 
clean-up of last winter's work. 

The stories of the returned miners vary only 
in the details of their good fortune. L. B. 
Khodes, an old miner, tells the following story: 
"I am located on Claim No. 21, above the dis- 
covery on Bonanza Creek. I was among the for- 
tunate ones, as I cleared about $40,000; but 
brought only $5,000 with me. I was the first 
man to go to bed rock gravel, and to discover 
that it was lined with gold dust and nuggets. 
The rock was seamed and cut in V-shaped 
streaks, caused, it is supposed, by glacial action. 
In these seams I found a clay which was exceed- 
ingly rich. In fact, there was a stratum of pay 
gravel 4 feet thick upon the rock, which was lined 
with gold, particularly in these channels or 
streaks. The rock was about 16 feet from the 
surface. That discovery made the camp. It 
was made on October 23, 1896, and as soon as 
the news spread everybody rushed to the dig- 
gings from Circle City, forty miles away, and 
every other camp in the district. There was a 
lack of food. We had nothing but what was 
sledded from Forty-Mile. Flour sold as high as 
$45 a sack, and shovels at $18. I invested my 
money in another claim, a two-thirds divided in- 



66 Klondike. 

terested in Claim No. 23. If I had not bought 
in I could have brought out at least $35,000, but 
the investment there is the best security, and 
pays interest from 15 to 25 per cent, a year." 

The Alaska Mining Record, published in 
Juneau, contains letters stating that the stories 
told are not exaggerated. "One hundred dol- 
lars to the pan is very common. One can hardly 
believe it, but it is true, nevertheless. A very 
hard country to live in on account of the mos- 
quitoes and poor grub, but healthy and a show 
to make a ten-strike. There is nothing a man 
could eat or wear that he cannot get a good price 
for. First-class rubber boots are worth from an 
ounce to $25 per pair. The price of flour has 
been raised from $4 to $6 and was selling at $50 
when we arrived, as it was being freighted from 
Forty-Mile. One boat has already reached 
here, and another is expected to-day. Big 
money can be made by bringing small outfits over 
the trail this fall. Wages have been $15 per day 
all winter, though a reduction to $10 was at- 
tempted; but the miners quit work." Another 
letter says: "It will pay to bring anything here 
which can be carried in; the demand is good, 
and prices such that there is money in anything 
that can be brought in." 

In speaking of American miners in the Yukon 
and through Canadian territory, Grovernor Mack- 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 5T 

intosh, of the Northwest Territories, said 
that those who have made discoveries and 
complied with the laws are on the same 
plane as British subjects, and entitled to the 
same rights, privileges and protection. This, 
according to Governor Mackintosh, is in line 
with the policy of the Canadian Government 
in its desire to encourage the best American 
miners, who are considered the best miners in 
the world, to go to the Northwest Territory and 
assist in its development. 

He then spoke of the unwritten laws of the 
district and of the sense of honor that prevails 
among the men who have gone into the district 
as miners. Inspector Strickland had told him 
that he had walked into a cabin in which more 
than a quarter of a million dollars lay uni^ro- 
tected. While its value was recognized on all 
sides, no attempt was made at any time to steal 
it. Food that is cached along the trails is un- 
molested. If a hungry man passes along he 
takes a nibble, but that is all. There are un- 
written laws of the miners that have a founda- 
tion of honor, and if any violation of the customs 
of the district were perpetrated it would be a 
sorry day for the person who tried to take ad- 
vantage of the trust imposed upon all. 

Governor Mackintosh said that in this much- 
discussed district the gold area is not confined. 



58 Klondike. 

There are nearly 9,000 miles of waterways con- 
nected with and tributary to the McKenzie, 
Porcupine, Laird, Pelly, Lewis and Yukon 
Eivers, not mentioning the Stuart and Hoota- 
linqua Eivers. Some of these are very large 
creeks from twenty to fifty feet wide. All have 
gold-bearing gravel. 

For instance, Dominion Creek appears to prom- 
ise quite as rich a yield as the Klondike. "To 
be candid," said Mr. Mackintosh, "it would 
seem as though this placer area will be inexhaust- 
ible, and possible to work for years to come, 
while the old Hudson Bay explorers state that 
some of the quartz mines north and west of the 
Yukon will yield from $200 to 8300 per ton, 
free-milling ore. Added to this the timber sup- 
ply in various sizes follows all of the water 
stretches. Coal has been found in the valley of 
Forty-Mile Creek and at other points." 

The governor states that his disposition is not 
to encourage wild excitement or to foster an un- 
desirable quality of emigration. He does not 
think that any one should go who is not well 
provided with everything demanded by the con- 
ditions of the rigorous climate. 

The area hastily examined during last season 
is but a portion of the great interior of Alaska. 
That gold occurs over a large extent of country 
has been de^^rmined, but the richness of the 



A Mcmual for Gold Seekers. 59 

vark)us veins and lodes remains to be ascer- 
tained by actual mining operations. Gold is 
known to occur in the great unexplored regions 
south of the Yukon, because of its presence in 
the wash of the streams, and it is quite probable 
that the Yukon gold belt extends to the north 
and west, but this can be determined only by 
further exploration. 

There is a comparatively unknown region 
north of Cook's Inlet. Maps show that the 
Alaska Mountains are broken down north of 
Cook's Inlet, and that the Sushitna Eiver ex- 
tends almost directly north 150 miles, when it 
branches, one large tributary coming from the 
west and another from the northeast. The latter 
was followed up northward 200 miles to a large 
lake. 

''Talk about it being hot here to-day," said 
one bearded Yukoner to a Seattle man, "why, 
this is cool weather compared to what we get 
during the Alaskan summer along the valley of 
the Yukon. The sun swings around there in a 
circle for three months, just dipping below the 
horizon part of the time for a night which is 
from three minutes to three hours long. It is 
one day for six weeks, when the sun never sets, 
and the only night is one conjured up in the 
imagination. Talk about it being hot. Why, 
up in the Yukon V»*JIey in the foothills, the 



60 Klondike. 

average temperature during the summer is 105 
to 120 degrees. It never rains and the heat is 
pitiless. The atmosphere is dry, however, and 
one can stand the heat better than in India, say, 
where the heat is mixed with humidity." 

"There is a peculiar thing about the valley of 
the Yukon and all southeastern Alaska, in fact," 
says Mr. Swineford, who from 1885 to 1890 was 
governor of that part of the United States, and 
is now government inspector of surveyors-general 
and district land officers, and who owns large 
mining properties in Alaska. "That is the per- 
petual verdure during the summer months. No 
matter how hot it is nor how dry — the rain may 
not fall from the beginning of June until the 
close of summer or the last of August — yet the 
grass and shrubbery will be as green and luxuriant 
as it is here now. Your verdure this summer, 
on account of the excessive rainfall, is something 
like that in the interior of Alaska, dark green 
and sturdy, full of life, like a healthy, robust 
man. In Alaska, however, the luxuriance and 
virility of the verdure is due to the fact that the 
ground never thaws below a depth of six to ten 
feet. No matter how hot it is, the hotter the 
better, the frozen ground continually gives tip to 
the roots of the grasses and growing grains a 
life-giving moisture. 

"The Yukon Valley is like the valley of fhe Eed 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 61 

Eiverof the North in Minnesota. Although the 
mines are rich and easily worked it costs a small 
fortune to get them in condition to mine, and it 
costs lots of money to live and to transport the 
gold dust to a market. The average young man 
who makes up his mind to strike for the Yukon 
gold fields imagines that his journey is ended 
when he reaches Juneau — that he has but to 
step across the country and he is at the Yukon. 
He will find, however, that he is greatly mis- 
taken. On arriving at Juneau he will have to 
get an outfit that will cost him from $500 to $600, 
and then he will have to cross a wild mountain- 
ous country, along Indian trails. He will have 
to cross four large lakes and make three portages 
before he reaches the Yukon Eiver. Arrived 
there, however, it is comparatively easy sailing 
until he comes to a likely tributary, up which he 
will have to work to a placer field. 

"In summer the heat is something awful in the 
valleys of those little tributaries, and the miner 
is compelled to wear a closely-woven mosquito 
netting over his face and gloves on his hands, to 
keep from being blinded by the mosquitoes and 
black flies, which swarm in countless numbers in 
the valleys. So bad are they that the sleeves at 
the wrists and the trousers at the ankles must be 
tied tightly, or the little pests will crawl inside. 
Their sting seems to be more venomous than 



62 Klondike. 

that of the mosquito and black fly here. It is 
impossible to keep domestic animals in the val- 
leys — the flies will blind them in a day. All the 
wild animals, the reindeer, elk, etc., remain on 
the mountains during the summer. 

''What the country needs above all things is 
communication with the outside world. If the 
government at Washington would make some 
arrangement whereby the Canadians could get a 
port of entry on the disputed part of the coast, 
it would be a great boon to Alaska, as well as to 
this part of the Northwest Territory. Most of 
the men who "hit it" are Americans, whose gold 
will go to San Francisco and the United States. 
Because of the lack of adequate communication 
with the civilized world the miners are in con- 
stant fear lest supplies should give out. Many 
articles can be had but for a limited time after 
the arrival of a steamer, and those who are not 
fortunate enough to get a supply at that time 
must do without for weeks and months, no 
matter how much gold they may have to make 
purchases with. The scarcity may be one of 
provisions, window sashes, or gum boots, but al- 
ways there is a scarcity there of some important 
article. Generally there is never enough of any- 
thing, and only the opening up of communica- 
tion with the coast by some other route than the 
mouth of the Yukon offers any prospect of ade- 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 63 

quate relief. If the Canadians had a port of 
entry they would have commerce coming down 
the river from the direction of Juneau, and the 
country would not be dependent upon the scanty 
supplies coming 1,900 miles up the Yukon from 
Behring Sea." 

There are lots of creeks as yet unprospected 
and lots of gold to be had, and it is all right if 
you go fully prepared for the worst. The first 
year must be practically lost, so the only show is 
for a man to buy some claim or go to work. 
The rate of wages will fall, and he will be again 
badly ofE. 

The country is well timbered about Klondike. 
The summer is dry, hot and pleasant. Grain is 
mostly a failure. Turnips and radishes will 
flourish, and potatoes, though small, will grow 
well. Cabbages will not head at all. Fodder is 
abundant, and cattle could be easily kept if they 
were taken into the country. 

The growth of plants is rapid after the snow 
disappears. In June the sun sets about 10:30 
P.M. and rises about 3 a.m. Even at midnight, 
however, it is almost as light as at noonday. 

The mean temperature of Klondike for the 
four seasons is as follows: 

Spring, 14.22; summer, 59.67; autumn, 17.37; 
winter— 30.80. 

Think of it — a mean winter temperature of 



64 Klondike. 

thirty degrees below zero! The winter fall of 
snow is between five and ten feet. 

The following table of distances on the over- 
land trip will be found of interest: 

MIIiES 

Seattle to Juneau 899 

Juneau to Dyea 100 

Dyea to foot of canyon t 

Foot of canyon to Sheep Camp 5 

Sheep Camp to summit . .... 5 

Summit to head of Lake Lindermann 9 

Lake Lindermann (length) 6 

Foot Lake Lindermann to head Lake Bennett 1 

Lake Bennett (length) 25 

Foot Lake Bennett to head Tagish Lake 3.7 

Tagish Lake (length) 16i 

Foot Tagish Lake to head Mud Lake 5 

Mud Lake (length) SO 

Foot Mud Lake to Grand Canyon 3i 

Grand Canyon to "White Horse Rapids 3 

White Horse Rapids to Tahkeena River 16 

Tahkeena River to head Lake Le Barge » 14 

Lake Le Barge (length) 31 

Foot Lake Le Barge to Hootalinqua River 30 

Hootalinqua River to Big Salmon River. 34 

Big Salmon River to Little Salmon River 37 

Little Salmon River to Five Fingers 60 

Five Fingers to Fort Selkirk 58 

Fort Selkirk to Stuart River 118 

Stuart River to Sixty-Mile 21 

Sixty-Mile to Dawson City 49 

Dawson City to Forty-Mile 52 

Forty-Mile to Fort Cudahy. 40 

Fort Cudahy to Circle City 340 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 65 

The following tableg ives the places and dis- 
tances when making the outside trip by way 
of St. Michael's: 

MILES 

Seattle to St. Michael's 3,000 

St. Michael's to Kutlik 100 

Kutlik to Andreafsky 125 

Andreafsky to Holy Cross 125 

Holy Cross to Koserofsky 5 

Koserofsky to Anvik 75 

Anvik to Nulate 225 

Nulate to Novikakat 145 

Novikakat to Tanana 80 

Tanana to Fort Yukon 450 

Fort Yukon to Circle City 80 

Circle City to Forty-Mile 340 

Forty-Mile to Dawson City 53 

From Juneau the distances to various points 
are as follows: 

MILES 

To Haines (Chilkat) 80 

To head of canoe navigation 106 

To Summit of Chilkoot Pass 115 

To Lake Lindermann Landing 124 

To head of Lake Bennett 129 

To boundary line between British Columbia and 

Northwest Territory 139 

To foot of Lake Bennett 155 

To foot of Caribou Crossing 158 

To foot of Takou Lake 175 

To Takish House 179 

To head of Mud Lake 180 



66 Klondike. 

MILES 

To foot of Lake Marsh 200 

To head of canyon. ... 225 

To head of White Horse Rapids 228 ; 

To Tahkeena River 240 

To head of Lake Le Barge 256 

To foot of Lake Le Barge 287 

To Hootalinqua 320 

To Cassiar Bar 347 

To Little Salmon River 390 

To Five Fingers 451 

To Pelly River 510 

ToStuart River 630 

To Forty-Mile Creek 750 

From Juneau to Sitka the distance is 160 
miles; Juneau to Wrangel, 148 miles; Juneau to 
Seattle, 899 miles, and to San Francisco, 1,596 
miles. 




The Ascent of Chilkoot Pass.— Page 67. 



A Manual for Gold Seekers, 67 



THE KLONDIKE TRAIL. 

There are at least six routes to the Klondike. 

The first and easiest is by steamer from San 
Francisco, or Seattle, to St. Michael's Island 
near the mouth of the river. 

The second is over the Ohilkoot Pass. 

The third crosses the White Pass. 

The fourth leads from Telegraph Creek on the 
Stickeen Eiver to the headwaters of the Lewis 
branch of the Yukon. 

The fifth is an overland trail from Edmonton 
to the headwaters of the Pelly. 

The sixth is by water down the Athabasca and 
Mackenzie Kivers to Fort Simpson, and from 
thence over the mountains to the head of the 
Porcupine, a tributary of the Yukon. 

This route may be varied by making Winnipeg 
instead of Edmonton the starting point, and so 
reaching the Athabasca by way of Lake Winni- 
peg. 

All will be found described in the following 
chapter. 

The all-water route, by way of the mouth of 



68 Klondike. 

the Yukon, is a fifteen days' voyage from Seattle 
to St. Michael. One goes straight out into the 
Pacific toward Japan for 1^,800 miles. Then one 
turns through Unimak Pass to the Aleutian 
Islands, and touches for a day at the port of 
Dutch Harbor. Thence one sails away to the 
North across Behring Sea and past the Seal 
Islands, 800 miles beyond, to the port of St. 
Michael. This is a transfer point, and the end 
of the ocean voyage. At St. Michael, after a 
wait of anywhere from a day to two weeks, grant- 
ing that the river is open, one may go aboard a 
flat-bottomed river steamer for another fifteen or 
twenty days' voyage up the Yukon. 

If the traveler should arrive at St. Michael 
as early as August 25, he would be almost assured 
of reaching the mines before cold weather closed 
river navigation, but arriving later than that his 
chances would be good for either wintering on 
the desolate little island of St. Michael, or 
traveling by foot and dog sled the 1,900 miles to 
the mines after the river had frozen into a safe 
highway. As to the probabilities of the ocean 
route, a boat leaving Seattle or San Francisco by 
August 10 should make safe connections at St. 
Michael. 

As early as August 1 the New York Sun 
warned its readers that: "People who have the 
gold fever do not realize that ships and steamers 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 69 

starting for St. Michael, except in few cases, 
cannot hope to get through to Klondike the same 
year. It has already been reported that there is 
very little water in the Yukon this year, and it is 
doubtful whether the regular river steamers can 
get through before the winter freeze-up. Parties 
starting for the gold fields in steamers, on the 
decks of which are sections of river boats, cannot 
put their portable craft together in time, on 
reaching St. Michael, to float boats and reach 
Dawson City before the season closes. At no 
season can gasoline launches be used to advan- 
tage on the river, except for transporting goods 
part of the way up stream." 

The only practical vessel for river trade is a 
small flat-bottom river steamer drawing from one 
to two feet of water, which can pass over the 
sand bars. When the present rush for St. 
Michael is over a crowd of fortune-seekers will 
head for the Juneau route, which is open nearly 
all the year. A number of steamboats will be 
put on the Yukon next summer; twenty are now 
building. At present, however, there are but 
three boats plying above St. Michael on the 
Yukon. They are flat-bottomed, stern-wheel 
boats, such as are used on the Missouri Eiver. A 
fourth one is building. The two companies own- 
ing these boats having a monoply on the supplies 
of the region. 



70 Klondike. 

The North American Transportation and 
Trading Company run three steamers from San 
Francisco to Seattle, thence to St. Michael, and 
river boats from St. Michael up the Yukon 
Eiver to Circle City. A ticket on the steamers 
Portland or Excelsior, from Seattle to Circle City 
costs $150, and it takes the boats fifteen days to 
make the trip. This will not suit your purpose 
if you want to start earlier than May 1. The 
last boat leaves San Francisco on August 30. 

"We have about 5,000 tons of provisions on 
the river,'' said Louis Sloss, president of the 
company, "and we will send in as much more as 
possible. It is impossible, however, to know 
whether there will be enough for the people, for 
I understand that by the close of the open season 
Dawson will have three or four times as many 
people as it did a month or two ago. If there 
are not enough provisions the Alaska company 
may be blamed, but it will not be our fault. 
Our boats can carry only so much, and if that is 
not enough it is not our fault. We advise every 
one to travel overland from Juneau, taking pro- 
visions with them. If this were done a probable 
famine would be avoided. 

"The Excelsior will sail from here to St. 
Michael, where it connects with the river boats 
to Dawson. These river boats are stern- 
wheelers, like the Sacramento river boats, and 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. Yl 

each of them tows a barge loaded with provisions. 
The boat that connects with the Excelsior will 
be the last to go up the river this season. It 
will arrive at Dawson early in September. The 
river usually freezes from the first to the fifteenth 
of October. Our boat can return down stream 
to St. Michael before the river closes, but it can • 
not go up again until next year." 

The Excelsior allows 150 pounds of baggage to 
each passenger and no more. The space is too 
valuable to allow additional accommodations. 

The distances from Seattle by the ocean route, 
according to Mr. Sloss, are: 

MILES 

To St. Michael 2,850 

" Circle City 4,350 

" Forty-Mile 4,600 

" Klondike 4,650 

Five out of every six miners, however, that 
start for the Yukon gold regions before June, 
1898, will probably go in by way of Juneau and 
either the Chilkoot or the White Passes. All 
the first of the rush has been through the 
former, and hundreds of tons of freight are 
already piled there awaiting shipment. Foui 
days after leaving Victoria, British Columbia, 
you are at Juneau. You already begin to sniff 
the placers from afar. Away off to the north are 



Y2 Klondike. 

the huge white bulwarks which you must cross 
before you can reach the Eldorado. Between 
you and their summits are the league-long levels 
of snow, and cold Nature's white death rose. 
You will find Juneau a strange little town, damp, 
half-frozen and huddled close to the mouth of 
an island bay. The queer little houses are dis- 
maying. The strange-looking Chilkats walk 
about peering from beneath their hooded furs. 
Fish, not gold, is their ambition. 

Occasionally one appears leading in leash half 
a dozen wild-looking dogs. As the camel is the 
ship of the tropic desert, so are these dogs the 
little steam engines of the Arctic. 

The dominion authorities have sent customs 
officers to the head of the Lynn Canal and to 
Lake Tagish. There is a collector at Fort 
Cudahy, only fifty miles from Dawson City, and 
these arrangements, backed up by a strong force 
of police, are considered ample for the protection 
of revenue just now. 

The greatest question of all is one of commu- 
nication. It is reported that a pack trail exists 
for twenty of the eighty miles which separates 
the coast from the first post to be established at 
60 degrees of north latitude in undisputed Brit- 
ish territory. If so, a narrow-guage railway can 
be built where there is a pack trail. The cost 
would not be great, and if cars could be hauled 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 73 

twice a day over the mountains facing the coast, 
a tremendous obstacle would be overcome; be- 
cause in winter it is impossible to cross the 
mountains except at the risk of life, and to be 
caught in a storm would be fatal. The mounted 
police force will be increased from 20 to 100. 

Mounted police posts will be established at 
distances of fifty miles apart up to Fort Selkirk. 
These will be used to open up a winter road, 
over which monthly mails will be sent by dog 
trains. If possible a telegraph line will be con- 
structed over the mountains from the head of 
the Lynn Canal to the first post. By the present 
method of transportation over the pass, by horse 
and Indian packing, it is estimated that it will 
require six months to get the present accumula- 
tion out of the way, to say nothing of that now 
daily piling up at Dyea. The distance over to 
the divide is thirty miles, and the ordinary outfit 
of the miner is 1,800 pounds, three days being 
consumed in making a round trip. Two hun- 
dred pounds is a load for a pack animal, while 
the Indians carry from 75 to 150 pounds apiece. 
There are now 200 Indians and 300 horses en- 
gaged in packing over this trail, assisted by 
1,000 miners, and tenderfeet. 

It is suggested that army officers or good 
road engineers might find an easy solution by 
organizing the entire gang, and constructing a 



74 Klondike. 

first-class wagon road, a feat that could be ac- 
complished in less than thirty days. 

One correspondent writes: "There is plenty of 
good prospecting ground for years to come, but 
it is better to go about it in a systematic manner 
than to rush off at half-cock. As to reaching 
the diggings by the way of Dyea, I have to say 
this: I will go in that way in the spring, and by 
using a sled carry 1,000 pounds of supplies, 
whereas the men who are now attempting that 
route will have a hard time to get in with 250 
pounds. You see in the spring all the gulches 
from Dyea to Lake Lindermann are filled with 
snow and ice. You can drag your sled over 
them easily. At present you must pack your 
goods or hire Indians. 

*'These Indians are sharp and will get white 
men to bidding against each other. The man 
who pays the highest will secure their services. 
Already the Indians have run the price per 
pound up to twenty-five cents and more. After 
you reach Lake Lindermann you build a raft of 
poles and push along to its end; then you have a 
portage of a couple of miles before you reach 
Lake Bennett. Here you want a boat; but if 
you think you will get it easily you may be 
greatly mistaken. The timber is small; it is 
hard work to get a tree that will produce 60 feet, 
and you need about 250 feet." 



A Mcmual for Gold Seekers. 75 

In approaching Juneau the vessel is often sub- 
jected to the fierce winds which sweep down the 
valley of the Takou Eiver. If there is a strong 
north or northwest wind it comes like a demon 
roaring out from the Takou, lashing the water 
into foam in its rage, and tossing volumes of 
spray clear over the top of Grand Island. When 
the steamer has come around to the head of the 
island it takes the scow in tow, and in about 
twenty hours from the time of leaving it enters 
the mouth of the Dyea Eiver near Chilkoot, and 
the salt water journey is ended. 

Here on a sandpit about a mile below Healy & 
"Wilson's trading posts, the outfits are taken 
from the scow and piled upon the beach. Each 
man must look out for himself now; the guar- 
dianship of your baggage by any carrying com- 
pany is ended. Juneau is nearly a hundred 
miles behind you. Immediately in the fore- 
ground is the ranch and store owned by Healy 
& Wilson, and beyond in their mantles of snow 
rise the coast mountains, cold and severe, striking 
a feeling of dread into many a heart; and beyond 
this frozen barrier there stretches away hundreds 
of miles the vast country of the Yukon, an ex- 
panse so wide that it is limited only by the ex- 
tent of man's endurance. But haste must be 
made in the sorting of outfits and getting them 
above tide water. Most miners camp near by in 



76 Klondike. 

the edge of the woods, perhaps taking one or 
two meals at the trading posts, which can be had 
at the price of fifty cents each, others find both 
board and lodging there until they are ready to 
push on. 

Now for the first time the miner begins to 
realize that the proper outfit for a trip of this 
kind is the result of experience, and the longer 
he has been in this country, and the more thor- 
oughly he knows it, just so much more care is 
used in the selection and packing of his outfit. 
A careful and thorough examination should be 
made to see that nothing has been lost or for- 
gotten. Here he bids farewell to hotels, restau- 
raunts, steamboats and stores — in fact to civiliza- 
tion, and is a "free man" to pursue his course 
how and where he will; beyond all conventional- 
ities of society, and practically beyond all law, 
so far as it is the outgrowth of organized govern- 
ments. 

Going up the Dyea Kiver, five miles on the ice 
will bring one to the mouth of the canyon. 
Here in the woods a comfortable camp can be 
easily arranged. The tent is pitched on top of 
the snow, the poles and pins being pushed down 
into it. While some are busily engaged in build- 
ing a fire and making a bed, the best cook of the 
party prepares the supper. 

If you have no stove a camp fire must be built. 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 77 

either on an exposed point of rock or in a hole 
dug down in the snow; if you have a stove it can 
be quickly arranged on a "grindstone" inside 
the tent, the grindstone consisting of three 
poles some six or eight feet long, and laid in the 
snow on which the stove is placed. 

The heat from the stove will soon melt a hole 
underneath, but there will be enough firm snow 
under the ends to hold it up. For the bed hem- 
lock brush is cut, and laid on the snow to the 
depth of a foot or more, and this is covered with 
a large square of canvas on which the blankets 
and robes are put. When furnished it forms a 
natural spring bed, which will afford grateful 
rest after hauling a load all day. 

Dyea Canyon is about two miles long, and 
perhaps fifty feet wide. A boat cannot go 
through it, but in the early spring miners go 
through on the ice, bridging with poles the dan- 
gerous places or openings. After the ice breaks 
up it is necessary to go over the trail on the east 
side of the canyon. The trail was built by Cap- 
tain Healy at his own expense, but it is little used, 
as most miners go through the canyon before the 
ice breaks up. 

The camping place beyond the canyon is a 
strip of woods some two or three- miles long, 
known as Pleasant Camp. Its name is some- 
thing of a misnomer, for there is not even a log 



78 Klondike. 

shanty there; some woods, however, do give a 
kind of shelter, and, as everywhere else along 
the road, there is plenty of snow. 

From here the assent is gradual, and the next 
and last camp in timber before crossing the sum- 
mit is known as Sheep Camp. This is at the 
edge of the timber, and no wood for a fire can be 
gotten any higher np. This camp is not usually 
broken until all of the outfit has been placed on 
the summit. When the weather is favorable 
everything except what is necessary for a camp 
is pushed a mile and a half to Stone House, a 
clump of big rocks, and then to what is called 
the Second Bench. 

Care must be exercised in soft weather, or 
everything is liable to be swept from the bench 
by a snowslide or an avalanche, and should this 
happen the Indians will prove of great assistance 
in recovering part of the things. With long 
slender rods, tipped with steel, they feel down 
in the snow and locate most of the large pack- 
ages, which, without them and their feel-rods one 
would never find. 

At Sheep Camp the summit towers above you 
about 3,500 feet, but the pass is some 500 feet 
lower. No further progress can be made until a 
clear day, and sometimes the weather continues 
bad for two or three weeks, the mountain top 
hidden in thick clouds, and icy winds hurling 



A ManvM for Gold Seekers. 79 

the new-fallen snow in every direction, or driving 
the sleet in the face of any one bold enough to 
stir out of camp and peep up at that almost 
precipitous wall of snow and ice. But sunshine 
comes at last, and the wind grows still. 

Now comes the tug of war to get the outfit to 
the summit. For 600 feet every step must be cut 
in the ice, and so steep is that that a person with 
a pack on his back must constantly bend forward 
to maintain his equilibrium. The first load 
planted on the summit of the pass, a shovel is 
stuck in the snow to mark the spot; then back 
for another pack, and fortunate is he who gets 
his whole outfit up in a single day. 

Indians may be hired to do the packing, and 
their rates vary slightly, but the regular price 
has been five dollars a hundredweight from the 
second bench to the summit, or fifteen cents a 
pound from Healy & Wilson's to the lakes. 
These prices have been shaded a little the past 
season, and some outfits were packed over the 
lake at thirteen cents a pound; now the rates are 
twenty-five cents a pound. The reason for the 
previous cut in price was that many miners in- 
sisted on doing their own packing, and that their 
work was much assisted by a tramway device, 
which was operated last season with more or less 
success by one Peterson, whose inventive genius 
led him to believe that a simple arrangement of 



80 KloThdike. 

ropes and pulleys would greatly help in getting 
outfits up the steeper places. 

A small log is buried in the snow, and to this 
dead man a pulley is attached through which a 
long rope is passed, to the lower end of which a 
Yukon sleigh is attached, and the empty box on 
the sled fastened to the upper end of the rope is 
then filled with snow until its weight becomes 
sufficient to take it down the incline, thus drag- 
ging the other one up. 

The snow was found too light, but with three 
or four men as ballast in place of snow it worked 
well, and saved a good deal of packing. When 
the last load has reached the summit, and the 
miner stands beside his outfit looking down to- 
ward the ocean, only twenty miles away, he can 
feel that his Journey has fairly begun, and as he 
turns he sees the descending slope melting into^ 
the great valley of the Yukon. 

The descent for the first half-mile is steep, 
then a gradual slope to Lake Lindermann, some 
ten miles away. But there is little time for rest- 
ing and none for dreaming, as the edge of the 
timber where the camp must be made is seven 
miles from the summit. Taking the camping 
outfit and sufficient provisions for four or five 
days, the sleigh is loaded, the rest of the outfit 
is packed up or buried in the snow, the shovels 
being stuck up to mark the spot. 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 81 

This precaution is necessary, for storms come 
suddenly, and rage with fury along these moun- 
tain crests. The first half-mile or more is made 
in quick time, then over six or seven feet of 
snow the prospector drags his sleigh to where 
there is wood for his camp fire. At times this is 
no easy task, especially if the weather be stormy, 
for the winds blow the new-fallen snow about so 
as to completely cover the track made by the 
man but little ahead. At other times, during 
the fine weather, and with a hard crust on the 
snow, it is only a pleasant run from the pass 
down to the first camp in the Yukon Basin. 

The rest of the outfit having been brought from 
the summit, the next move is to Lake Linder- 
mann, about three miles distant. The route 
now lies seven miles across the lake to its outlet, 
down the outlet three or four miles in a north- 
easterly direction to Lake Bennett, down to the 
foot of this lake, twenty-five miles, then by the 
river four or five miles, until the Takou Lake is 
reached. The lake is some twenty miles long, 
and empties in a mud lake through an outlet 
three miles long. Mud Lake is about ten miles 
long, and at the foot of it open water is usually 
found in April. 

Open water will probably be passed before 
reaching this point in the rivers connecting the 
lakes, and firm ice at the sides affords good sled- 



82 Klondike. 

ding, but at the foot of Mud Lake a raft or boat 
must be built. Dry timber can be found along 
the shores with which to build a raft, which will 
take everything to the Lewis Eiver Canyon, 
about forty miles to the northwest. 

The course down the lakes has been much in 
the form of a horseshoe, and now bears to the 
west instead of the east. 

Before reaching the canyon, a high cut bank 
on the right hand side will give warning that it 
is close at hand. Good river men have run the 
canyon safely even with loaded rafts, but it is 
much surer to make a landing on the right 
side and portage the outfit around the canyon, 
three-quarters of a mile, and run the raft through 
empty. The sameness of the scenery on ap- 
proaching the canyon is so marked that many 
parties have gotten into the canyon before they 
were aware of it. 

Below the canyon are the White Horse Eapids 
— a bad piece of water — but the raft can be lined 
down the right-hand side until near the White 
Horse, three miles below. This is a box canyon 
about a hundred yards long and fifty in width, 
a chute through which the water of the river, 
which is nearly 600 feet wide just above, rushes 
with maddening force. But few have ever 
attempted to run it, and four of them have been 
drowned. 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 83 

Of two men who made the attempt in May, '88, 
nothing was found save a bundle of blankets. 
Below the White Horse another raft is built, and 
the journey continued seventy miles to Lake Le 
Barge. This usually requires three days. 

Afer entering the lake solid ice is found per- 
haps a mile from the inlet. Camp is made on 
the shore, and as the ice gets soft most of the 
sledding is done in the early morning, it being 
sufficiently light in May to start soon after mid- 
night. This lake is about forty-five miles long, 
and there is an island about midway. Little 
snow will be found here late in April, but it will 
be all glare ice. 

After camping on the island, a day's journey 
will make the foot of the lake, and the sledding 
is completed. If one expects to stay in the 
country the sled should not be thrown away, 
however, as it will prove useful later on. 

A comfortable camp should be made here, and 
the building of a boat commenced. This will re- 
quire from seven to ten days, and the method of 
preparing lumber is novel to all who are unused 
to frontier life. The trees selected should be 
sound and straight, and twelve inches through 
the butt. A saw pit about six feet high is built 
near the tree, and the tree felled and cut into 
logs about twenty-five feet long. When all is 
ready, neighbors are invited to the rolling bee to 



84 Klondike. 

help in placing the logs on the pit. To make 
good lumber requires a sharp saw and experi- 
ence^ besides hard work. 

To avoid trouble at this time, the man in the 
pit should keep his mouth closed. 

After the pit is leveled and the log peeled, a 
square is made on the smaller end, and an exact 
counterpart on the other; the log is then lined 
both above and below and squared or slabbed, 
then it is lined for the boards, an eighth of an 
inch always being allowed for the saw cut. 
After the boards are sawed, the boat is built, 
calked and pitched, oars and poles made, and 
the journey resumed. Groing down the Lewis 
Eiver, the Hootalinqua, Big Salmon and Little 
Salmon Elvers are passed on the right before 
reaching the Five Fingers. Here four large 
buttes stand like giant sentinels of stone to dis- 
pute your further ingress into the country; the 
water, in five passages, runs swiftly between; the 
right-hand passage is the only one which is prac- 
ticable, and though the water is swift, it is safe 
if the boat be kept in the center. 

A few moments of strong pulling and careful 
management and the boat is rapidly approaching 
the Eeef Eapids, three miles below. Here again 
the right-hand side insures safety, and having 
gone through them the last dangerous water is 
passed. Next comes the Pelly Eiver, and the 



n 

3' 

H 

3" 
cr 



on; 




A Mrniual for Gold Seekers. 85 

junction of the Pelly and Lewis from the Yukon 
proper. At this point the first trading post is 
reached. This is known as Harper's, and is 510 
miles distant from Juneau. 

Continuing the journey, Stuart Eiver is 
passed on the right; then the White River on 
the left, so named on account of its milky- 
looking water; the next tributary on the same 
side is Sixty-Mile Creek, so called on account of 
its being sixty miles above Fort Reliance. A 
hundred miles below, on the left side, is Forty- 
Mile Creek, forty miles below is Fort Reliance. 
Here the Yukon is over two miles in width, and 
on the upper bank of Forty-Mile Creek is the 
principal trading post of the interior. This is 
the starting point for all the mines, and is 750 
miles from Dyea. 

An outfit weighs, as we have said, some 1,800 
pounds; to move this in winter is almost impos- 
sible. The snow is dry and frosty, and a sleigh 
pulls very hard over it. The best a man could 
hope to do would be to haul 200 pounds, and 
with this he could make about fifteen miles a 
day. Say he starts from a given point, takes 
200 pounds of his freight for seven and a half 
miles, and then comes back after his other 
stuff, thus making his round trip for the day fif- 
teen miles; and do not forget that the total dis- 
tance from Dyea or Skaguay to Dawson City is 
more than 500 miles. 



86 Klondike. 

If a person should have the misfortune to be 
frozen in, he should go ashore at once, build a 
small cabin and prospect any small creeks in the 
vicinity. This, of course, is on the supposition 
that he is not alone, but is a member of a party 
of several. A man should bear in mind that, 
as to the river itself, it never freezes over smooth. 
The ice forms in great rough masses which 
render travel impossible. Navigation ceases by 
October 15. 

The following appeared in an Alaskan news- 
paper: "The miner of Alaska looks to the Yukon 
country for a reproduction of the scenes of the 
Cassiar and Cariboo districts. That along that 
river and its numerous tributaries there are mil- 
lions of dollars hidden in the sands or locked 
within the mountain's rock-bound walls, there 
can be no doubt. For several years the more ad- 
venturesome of our placer miners have been go- 
ing to that Mecca of the North — Forty-Mile 
Creek. Many of them have returned after one 
or two seasons' sojourn, none the richer, save in 
experience; others have struck it rich, and made 
for themselves snug little fortunes, and a thou- 
sand others are wintering there now, hoping that 
next summer may bring them the good luck, for 
which they have so long waited. 

''Day after day, and season after season, the 
miners toil cheerfully at the bars and old water- 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 87 

courses of the creeks and rivers ^viiicli form part 
of the Yukon system, and every year sees their 
numbers increased, and every fall a large quan- 
tity of gold finds its way to the mints, and every 
spring the Alaskan steamers bring several hun- 
dreds to join the fortune hunters of the interior, 
Forty-Mile being the objective point of all going 
to the Yukon gold fields. Juneau is the outfit- 
ting point, the head of regular steamboat navi- 
gation during the winter and spring months. 
Here all persons leave the steamers which have 
brought them from Sound ports, or Victoria. 
The town is well supplied with hotels and res- 
taurants, where good board can be had for a dol- 
lar a day, lodgings extra. Here outfits are pur- 
chased for the journey in, and they must be se- 
lected and put up with care, for more than 700 
miles stretch of weary length between Juneau 
and Forty-Mile. 

"The market here offers everything necessary of 
good quality and at reasonable prices. The mer- 
chants understand the trade, and will select and 
put up an outfit, large or small. Unless a man 
knows what he wants the best thing he can do is 
to name the price he can afford to pay, and leave 
the selection to the merchant. The cost depends 
upon the purse of the buyer, and while a few 
have started in with as small as 125 outfits, $100 
would be a far safer figure, and very many greatly 
exceed this. 



88 Klondike. 

"Among the principal things is a Yukon sleigh, 
which is made here from a model which has 
proved to be the best fitted for the work re- 
quired; an ax, saw and nails for building a 
boat; warm and serviceable clothing, including 
gum boots, blankets and provisions for five 
months at least. 

^'The valley of the Yukon may be reached 
from Juneau by four different routes, crossing 
the coast range of mountains by as many passes 
— the Dyea or Chilkoot Pass, the Chilkat, 
Moore's or the White Pass, and Takou. As the 
Chilkoot is the only pass used to any extent, it 
is this route the miner will select. [Since this 
was written White Pass has been much improved 
— Ed.]. From Juneau to the summit of the 
Chilkoot Pass is a distance of 115 miles. Small 
steamers ply irregularly between here and Dyea, 
the head of navigation, 100 miles northwest 
of Juneau. During the early spring these boats 
usually sail a day or two after the arrival of 
the mail steamers from the Sound. The trip in 
good weather is made in twelve hours if there is 
no towing to be done, and the regular fare is 
$10, each passenger furnishing his own blankets 
and provisions. 

*'If the party is a large one with considerable 
baggage a scow is loaded with the miners' out- 
fits; if the tides are high the boat sometimes goes 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 89 

over the bar at the head of Douglas Island, thus 
saving nearly twenty miles of travel, besides 
avoiding the rough waters of the Takou. If the 
tides are not high the scow may be towed over 
the bar by the little tug Julia, and the steam- 
boat will take its course around the lower end of 
Douglas." 

Thomas Martin, of Jerrnyn, Lackawanna 
County, Pennsylvania, writes of the trip in by way 
of Dyea: 

"I arrived here, Klondike, May 18, this morn- 
ing about 10 o'clock, and have been busy all day 
getting things from the boat, and putting out 
cash and grub up in trees out of the way of the 
dogs, I wrote my last from Pleasant Camp. 
From there the hard work began. To Sheep 
Camp — one camp from Pleasant Camp — it was 
mostly uphill. It was hard work for a man to 
pull a hundred pounds of flour or anything else 
up some of the hills. It took us about five or six 
days to get our outfit to the foot of the summit. 
Then we had it packed over when a terrible 
storm was raging. But there was no turning 
back. So we loaded half of it on our sleds and 
started for Lake Lindermann, about fifteen 
miles. We reached there all right, and the fol- 
lowing morning started back for the summit 
again for our other load, which we had to bring 
through a canyon about a mile long. Next 
morning we started down Lake Lindermann with 
set sail. We could hardly see, but we had plenty 
of wind in our favor. It made us hustle and we 



90 Klondike. 

soon got across to camp. The following day we 
pulled our load to Lake Bennett, and next morn- 
ing started at 3 o'clock to cross the lake. We 
did not get very far before we struck a quarter 
of a mile of soft ice. Here we had some hard 
work, but we helped others and they helped us. 
We traveled about twenty miles that day, and 
next day reached the foot of Lake Bennett. 
Here we had a terrible gale of wind. I had to 
pull down the sail and row. We made two trips 
across Caribou Crossing next day, and camped 
on Taka Lake. We had fair traveling then till 
we camped on Marsh Lake to build our boat. 
At Caribou we had been joined by three other 
men, and we decided to build a boat together. 
But then the trouble began. If Noah had as 
much trouble in proportion to build his ark as 
we had to build our boat, I should feel sorry for 
him. But we got there, and when we started it 
was with a boat twenty-three feet long, and five 
feet wide in the middle. It was built to carry 
six men and our outfit of 3,500 pounds. We 
pulled it to the water's edge — about fifteen miles 
— calked and pitched it, and started down the 
river. Our steersman was a sailor from the 
steamer Mexico. Everything went all right 
until about 5 o'clock, when we saw a red flag and 
a black one ahead. We kept going and ran 
square on top of a rock in the middle of the cur- 
rent. The boat would not move, and on each 
side were about 100 feet of swift, deep, water. 
We thought the boat might go to pieces and 
drown us all, but she stood it well. After 
awhile a man who heard us shout came up and 
asked us if we wanted help. He brought seven 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 91 

other men and we unloaded our boat so that it 
floated oS all right. 

"We were then within a short distance of the 
canyon. We went through that and the White 
Horse Rapids all right, and had good luck after. 
The Lewis Eiver was jammed with ice so we had 
to camp. 

"We reached Lake La Barge and next day 
started down through the soft ice, following the 
other boats. Men in each boat were cutting the 
ice and keeping it back from smashing things. 
The bow of one boat touched the stern of the 
other, so that the ice could not get between. 
When we reached solid ice we got the boats out 
of the water on the sleds and started off. We 
went about a mile and struck a current running 
across our route. We had to get the boats across 
this, then take them out of the water again on 
the other side. When we were reaching the foot 
of Lake La Barge the ice was getting pretty thin, 
and at last the stern of our boat went through. 
We had to unload pretty lively and pull her 
ahead. We put a pole down, but found no bot- 
tom. 

"This was nothing compared with our experi- 
ence on the river below Lake La Barge. I never 
knew much about riding a boat, but in this case 
it was row or swim for about forty miles. It was 
the worst river I ever saw. It was full of rocks 
and twice we scraped our boat. We ran the 
Hootalina Eapids next. The river was low and 
that made it worse. We had to stop day after 
day for the ice to go down ahead of us. We 
passed the Five Fingers Rapids in safety, and 
also the Rink Rapids. After that we went all 



92 Klondike. 

right and landed here at Klondike, which, if the 
men are telling the truth, is the richest creek 
in the world. 

"I have been away to the diggings two days 
and now I am tired with tramping. It was rain- 
ing when we started for the diggings with a pack 
apiece on a trail on which we conld walk about a 
mile an hour. We had to cross the Klondike in 
a boat; fare, SI each. A little further we 
reached another river too high to ford. We 
felled a tree and floated over on that. Then we 
struck the Overland, which is in some parts 
water to your knees, or even over head. We 
made the acquaintance of some men on the trail, 
and they advised us to go back. I said 'No,* 
having got so far we were going all the way. 
By and by we reached a new cabin not yet 
occupied. We stayed here and cooked sup- 
per. After supper we kept on till 9 o'clock, 
then stayed all night with three other men in 
one of the cabins. Next morning we started to 
find some of Dick Eosemorey's old friends who 
had come in early. We kept finding them right 
along. They had rich claims, but these were 
winter diggings. We kept pushing on, and in the 
afternoon reached Frank Belcher's claim on El 
Dorado. It is very rich, one of the best. We 
stayed there all night. Frank told us not to be 
in any hurry, as we could get all the work we 
wanted in a little while. Next morning the first 
man we asked gave us work on summer diggings 
as soon as we can get back to Dawson Pond and 
get another pack, which takes two days. The 
wages are all right. 

"There is a sawmill here and lots of places 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 93 

for selling whisky — fifty cents a drink. One 
man is bringing 200 barrels. He will have no 
trouble to sell it. I have not seen any big game 
myself, but there has been lots of moose meat 
brought into camp. They said that men were 
starving in this country, but it is not so." 

Joaquin Miller has written to the San Fran- 
cisco Examiner that the hardships of the trip 
have been much exaggerated. He said: 

*'Now, I am not going to take the responsibil- 
ity of advising any one to come on this year. 
But of two things I am certain, from what I 
have found out since coming to the Sound. 
First, there is no possible chance for a famine in 
the mines; and second, the dangers and hard- 
ships and cost of getting there have been greatly 
exaggerated. This is no new thing in the gold 
discoveries, and is only a bit of human nature. 
You see, the discoverers and those who come in 
early want to hold and keep all in sight till they 
can get their friends in. I am not going to say 
anything unkind of the dauntless men in the 
Klondike. I only know the men who discovered 
the Salmon Eiver mines in Idaho sent out run- 
ners and posted notices to keep people from rush- 
ing in. And we used the very same arguments 
— starvation and intolerable hardships. But no- 
body starved, and, while a few perished in the 
snow, it must be remembered that men die from 
indigestion as well as from hunger. In line with 
this truth, I give the following from a respon- 
sible friend's letter, written lately from Dawson: 



94 Klondike. 

*' 'The hardships of the trip are much exag- 
gerated and misunderstood by the outside world. 
Of course, on the trails from Dyea to Lake Lin- 
dermann, a man's patience, nerve and strength 
are taxed to the utmost. Just from the ship, 
stores, offices and homes of luxury, or at least 
comfort, many find their strength almost un- 
equal to the occasion; some have been seen sit- 
ting on their burdens, weeping, swearing, or in 
silent despair. 

" 'There is no sickness to speak of, and few ac- 
cidents on the trail. Everybody is well and glad 
they are here. The mines are probably the rich- 
est, and cover a larger field than any ever dis- 
covered before. The gold is coarse, nuggets 
going as high as $300. Dirt washed out goes as 
high as 1800 to the pan, one man offering to 
wager he could pick and wash out $1,000 to the 
pan. Of course, this i san exception. El Dorado 
Creek so far has shown the richest. All through 
Bonanza shows very high. Hundreds of miles 
of unexplored country are ready for the pros- 
pector. The country is governed by a gold com- 
missioner, and captain of the mounted police. 
They are courteous and adopt a liberal policy. 
The Episcopal and Catholic churches are estab- 
lishing missions here. New enterprises are 
springing up every day. The saloons predomi- 
nate. Among the many questions asked of those 
going to the Klondike is the one of the dis- 
tances. By way of St. Michael and up the 
Yukon, it is 4,996 miles from San Francisco. 
To Klondike by way of Juneau it is little more 
than half the distance, or 2,694 miles. From 
Juneau to Klondike it is 678 miles.' " 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 95 

Any one proposing leaving New York City for 
the Klondike should study this table: 

Fare to Seattle over the Northern Pacific $67.75 

Tourist sleeper, fare $9.00 

Pullman sleeper $18.00 

Meals in dining car $18.00 

Tourist meals at stations $9.00 

New York to Seattle, in miles 3,160 

Number of days en route 7 

Steamer fare, Seattle to Juneau, with cabin and 

meals |75.00 

Fare, with berth $67.50 

Miles, Seattle to Juneau 1,000 

Number of days, Seattle to Juneau 3 

Cost of living in Juneau, per day $3.00 

Steamboat, up Lynn Canal to Healey's Store, 

miles 100 

Number of days to Healey's Store 1 

Cost of complete outfit, with provisions for one 

year $600.00 

Price of dog and sled outfit $500.00 

Total distance in miles 5,000 

Total days required for journey 90 

Best time to start April 15 

While Dyea is spoken of as the point for 
which most boats are heading, the majority of 
the passengers will get off at Skagawa, a few 
miles from Dyea up another inlet. The pass 
from Skagawa, called White Pass, is now consid- 
ered better than the Chilkoot, back of Dyea. 
White Pass is lower, much work has been done 



96 Klondike. 

on the trail and there is wood all along the 
route^ while on the Chilkoot Pass route wood 
has to be carried, if packers desire a fire during 
the night necessarily spent on the trail. 

Mr. C. H. Wilkinson, Canadian representative 
of the British Yukon Company, confirms the re- 
port that the White Pass pack trail over the 
mountains was opened for travel on July 16. It 
is a little east of the Chilkoot Pass route. Not 
only was White Pass opened for pack travel, he 
said, but the company had completed arrange- 
ments for placing a fleet of between ten and 
twenty steamboats on the Yukon Eiver as soon 
as the river opens next spring. The boats have 
already been contracted for, and will be in readi- 
ness for the opening of navigation. These boats 
will be flat-bottomed, with stern-wheels, very 
much of the same style as the old Mississippi 
and Ohio Eiver craft. They will be built to 
draw, when empty, only some eight inches of 
water, and when loaded about twenty inches. 
The lakes along the Yukon are quite deep, but 
the river is in places very shallow, necessitating 
the light draught lines on which the boats are 
being built. Half of this fleet will ply between 
the point where the trail over the White Pass 
strikes the headwaters of the Yukon and Miles 
Canyon, in the heart of the Klondike district. 
This distance is 650 miles. The other half of the 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 9Y 

fleet will ply on the lower Yukon, between Miles 
Canyon, and the mouth of the river. Com- 
munication will thus be established by the two 
principal routes by which the gold fields are 
reached by way of the White Pass, and by way of 
the lower Yukon. 

Mr. Wilkinson says that it is now altogether 
probable that the British Yukon Company will 
begin the construction of a narrow-gauge railroad 
over the White Pass as early next spring as oper- 
ations can be begun. It was at first the inten- 
tion of the company to build only a wagon road 
next summer, to be followed by a railroad if a 
subsidy could be obtained from the Dominion 
Government. In view, however, of the great 
rush to the gold fields the British Yukon Com- 
pany had practically decided to build the rail- 
road at once. 

The Alaska Searchlight published a letter 
from William Moore, at Fourteen-Mile Creek, 
Skagawa, Alaska, stating that the White Pass 
pack trail to the summit of the pass was opened 
for travel July 16. On reaching the summit the 
traveler steps upon an almost level country, the 
grade to the lakes being 20 feet to the mile. The 
distance from Saltwater to the Tagish Lake is 30 
miles.and from Saltwater to the head of Lake Ben- 
nett, 45 miles. Both routes from the summit are 
through rolling country, for the most part open, 



98 Klondike, 

witli plenty of grass for feeding stock, water and 
sufficient timber for all purposes. From Salt- 
water to the summit stock and pack horses can 
be driven through easily. 

Mr. Escoline, of the British Yukon Company, 
has telegraph from Victoria that he has just re- 
turned from a trip through the White Pass into 
the Yukon country, and thab it only took him 
two days to make the journeyto Tagish Lake. 
Mr. Escoline rej)resents the pass as easy, and 
says that horses go right through without any 
difficulty, and find ample forage on the way. 

It is not known whether one can buy lumber 
for boat building at the head of Lake Ben- 
nett or not, but it is assumed that the rush 
has exhausted the supply, and the late comers 
unprovided with boats would have to saw their 
own lumber. The Skagawa, or White Pass, is 
now being opened for horses, nearly all the peo- 
ple are turning that way. Lake Lindermann, 
Lake Bennett or Lake Tagish may be reached by 
this route, at from twenty-four to thirty-one 
miles. As many as 400 horses are either on the 
way to Skagawa or will be started within a 
week. This number will relieve the accumula- 
tion of freight at both passes. Packers who are 
taking horses will be able to earn the entire cost 
of their animals in ten days. One man who 
shipped thirty horses had eight or ten tons of 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 99 

freight contracted at fifteen cents a pound. It 
is assumed, however, that the packers' harvest 
will not be of long duration. With the coming 
of snow, which will permit of using sleds most of 
the distance across the pass, prices should go 
down to two or three cents a pound. But this 
condition of things can hardly come about until 
the river shall be frozen and the season be too 
late to reach the Yukon before spring. 

John 0. Calbreath, an old-time resident at 
Telegraph Creek on the Stickeen Eiver, British 
Columbia, has been directed by the Canadian 
authorities to secure a route that will be avail- 
able for ordinary traffic from the head of Stickeen 
Eiver to Teslin Lake. This body of water, it 
may be mentioned, is the source of the Hootalin- 
qua Eiver, a tributary of the Lewis, branch of 
the Yukon. If the road is perfected as now 
contemplated it will materially shorten the dis- 
tance that must be traveled by prospectors in 
order to reach the Yukon country, and, in addi- 
tion to this, will enable them to avoid all moun- 
tainous trails which are encountered in the jour- 
ney by way of Juneau. 

At present there is a trail from the mouth of 
Telegraph Creek to the lake, but it is diflBcult 
and not by any means in a straight line. It 
goes westward up the Tahtan Eiver, and then 
across the divide into the valley of one of the 



100 Klondike. 

lower branches of the Takn, and then over 
another divide into the Teslin Basin. 

Calbreath prospected the entire country last 
season, and ascertained from the natives that a 
little further westward of Telegraph Creek was a 
higher bench of open, level, country extending 
almost to the lake. The ascent from the south 
is comparatively easy, and, in fact, the only 
difficult portion of the proposed route is imme- 
diately south of the lake, where there are two or 
three miles of marshy ground. 

Steamboat operation is possible on the Stickeen 
Eiver during at least five months of the year, 
while vessels drawing from three to three and a 
half feet may run up to within a few miles of the 
headwaters of the stream. A Victoria paper 
says of the proposed route: 

"A. E. Mills, who was one of the party with J. 
0. Calbreath building the trail from Telegraph 
Creek to Teslin Lake, is back in Victoria. 
This trail is the one to which the government 
gave a grant of $3,000 to assist in building. The 
party left Telegraph Creek on May 26 and got 
the trail through to the lake on June 28. The 
intention had been to cross the plateau to the 
east and build the trail by that line, as more 
direct, but there too much snow was encoun- 
tered, and so the party took the old Hudson's 
Bay Company's trail, which runs sixty miles. 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 101 

working along it, and then finished to the lake, 
the distance being some 150 miles. The route 
was found on the whole level, with clumps of 
scrubby woods, or some swamp lands to encounter 
in places, but is pronounced by Mr. Mills to be a 
very good trail and a very feasible way into the 
Yukon. At the lake a large scow had been built 
by men inCalbreath's employ, and some supplies 
were shipped on it to Klondike before the party 
started on the return. It took the party nine 
days to get back to Telegraph Creek, though 
they could have made it in a day less if they had 
wished. Sixteen miners went on to Klondike on 
the scow. 

"Mr. St. Cyr, the surveyor sent out by the 
Dominion Government to examine the various 
routes into the Yukon, was met two days' jour- 
ney from the lake as the Calbreath party came 
back. He had followed their trail in, so he will 
be in a position to report upon it, and he will 
come back by some other route. By this time 
there is now a very good road into the Yukon if 
steamers would connect at Teslin Lake. Bond- 
ing goods at Wrangel, they can be taken by 
steamer up the Stickeen to Glenora, where the 
bond can be lifted. Then at Telegraph Creek, 
ten miles further on, goods can be taken over the 
150 miles of trail to Teslin Lake, and from there 
it is all plain sailing by water to Klondike. 



102 Klondike. 

This route would only be some ten or twelve 
days' travel from Wrangel. All along the trail 
the feed for cattle is excellent.'* 

The yearly report of the British Columbia 
Board of Trade, which has just been issued for 
1897, has the following encouraging remarks in 
regard to the mining possibilities of Cassiar, and 
to the prospects of the Cassiar Central Eailroad 
in connection therewith. Speaking first of the 
possibilities of the district, the report says: 

"Immediately north of Caribon is the district 
of Cassiar, an immense country, very little pros- 
pected. Several of the waterways have afforded 
richer placer diggings. 

"It is hardly within the scope of this report to 
do more than mention the Yukon gold fields 
which lie north of Cassiar in the Northwest Ter- 
ritory of Canada. The latest excitement re- 
sulted from discoveries on the Klondike Kiver 
and tributaries. Some of these are reported by 
old miners to equal California in early days in 
richness. It is believed that this mineral belt 
extends to Cassiar, and that the whole of the 
divide will be found to be rich in gold." 

Then as to the railroad and its proposed connec- 
tions the Board of Trade speaks as follows: 

"It is a matter for congratulation to find Brit- 
ish capitalists interesting themselves in transpor- 
tation enterprise in this province, as it affords 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 103 

some assurance that the accounts of the great 
natural resources of British Columbia are gain- 
ing credit in established centers of finance. The 
charter of the Cassiar Central Kailway has been 
acquired by such persons. Although the railway 
in this case will be short, probably not more than 
seventy-five miles, an immense area will be tribu- 
tary to it. Fort Wrangel, which is open to deep- 
sea vessels, will, in the meantime, be the western 
starting point; from thence passengers and 
freight will be taken on the company's steamers 
to Telegraph Creek, Stickeen River, where the 
railway will begin. The first eastern terminus 
will be at Dease Lake. 

"It is proposed that the company's steamers 
run on this lake and on the Liard and Frances 
Eivers, tributaries to the Mackenzie River, which 
flows into the Arctic Ocean. A few portages 
only will be necessary to control navigable waters 
extending over at least 1,000 miles. It is ex- 
pected that preliminary surveys will be made im- 
mediately, and that the railway will be completed 
before the close of 1899." 

Moran Bros., proprietors of a shipbuilding 
plant and machine-shop at Seattle, closed a con- 
tract with a British Columbia syndicate lately 
to build three boats for the Stickeen River. 
These boats are for a new route to the Yukon 
which the Canadians are exploiting. The 



104 Klondike. 

Stickeen River heads in the Cassiar mining dis- 
trict.. From the head of navigation on the 
Stickeen there is now a trail into Dease Lake, at 
one time a famous mining camp, to which twenty 
years ago there was a rush similar to that on at 
present to Klondike. 

From Dease Creek the Canadian Government 
is building a trail to the Yukon. When com- 
pleted this will be the Canadian route to the 
mines, although the Stickeen's mouth is in 
Alaska. One of these boats will be a stern- 
wheeler 190 feet long, with a beam of 20 feet; 
another will be a stern-wheeler 120 feet long, 
and the third a barge of about 500 tons' capac- 
ity. The Morans are to get out all the material 
here and have it ready to put together, and build 
the engines and boilers as well. Then the ma- 
terial will be taken to the Stickeen, and the boats 
built and launched there. 

M. J. Heney, who returned to Seattle on the 
City of Topeka, has stated that a new route to 
the Klondike has been surveyed and partially con- 
structed by the Canadian government. Pack 
trains are already running over it. The route is 
by the regular passenger steamers to Fort 
Wrangel, from which place the Hudson Bay 
steamer is taken to the head of navigation on 
the Stickeen Eiver. From this point the gov- 
ernment has cut the trail to a point on the 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 105 

Yukon Eiver, below the rapids. The route is 
said to be popular with many. 

Great interest is felt in new routes to the 
Yukon gold fields, which will reduce the time 
and cost of the journey. A man who establishes 
pack trains over any of the new routes will make 
more money than most of the new Klondike 
miners. The best trail from the coast to the 
Yukon region is said to be by the Lake Teslin 
trail. It starts at Fort Wrangel and presents 
few difficulties. This route leads up Telegraph 
Creek from Fort Wrangel, and is clear water 
travel for about 100 miles up the creek. The 
creek is abandoned there and the traveler strikes 
straight across the smooth tableland for about 175 
miles. Then Teslin Lake is reached, and it is 
plain sailing down the Hootalinqua Kiver, a tribu- 
tary of the Lewis Eiver, and down the Lewis it 
is clear going to Dawson City. 

The only dangerous part of this route is the 
Five Fingers Eapids, and these are not bad if 
one has a guide. Even now, it is said, the 
trip to the gold fields can be made with less 
danger and more quickly by this route than by 
any other. It is open usually until the middle 
of October, and sometimes as late as November. 

The chief astronomer of the Dominion Bureau 
of Surveys and International Boundary Com- 
mission has said in an interview that in his opin- 



106 Klondike. 

ion the route to the Klondike gold fields by way 
of the Mackenzie Eiver, Fort McPherson, and 
Peel Eiver^ to Fort Yukon in Alaska, was ut- 
terly impracticable, if not impossible in the fall. 

Starting from Edmonton, the end of railway 
communication, the commissioner said, the way 
traversed would be upward of 3,000 miles over 
land, river, and lake, to the Klondike. The 
water route included many diflBcult portages. 
The Hudson Bay Company's steamers ply the 
Mackenzie at uncertain dates, from point to 
point. No means of conveyance on other por- 
tions of the journey are to be found, and travelers 
would have to canoe and portage vast distances 
under great diflSculties, subject to long delays, 
carrying their own means of locomotion and 
necessaries of life. 

Under favorable circumstances the time con- 
sumed, exclusive of unavoidable delays in mak- 
ing the journey, would be upward of two 
months. The Mackenzie Eiver will be open 
until about the middle of October, but by the 
time the Yukon could now be reached it would, 
be closed to navigation, and traveling overland 
for 500 miles from Fort Yukon to the Klondike 
would be almost impossible. 

This belief is, however, not shared by the citi- 
zens of Fort Saskatchewan, who have met and 
passed the following resolutions: 



A Manual for Gold Seeders. 107 

"That, in our opinion, and for the interest of 
the whole Dominion, the Federal authorities 
should immediately construct a wagon road and 
telegraph line from this point to the Upper Yu- 
kon, via Fort Assiniboine, the Lesser Slave Lake, 
the Peace and Liard River Valleys, where an al- 
most air line can be got, per Dr. Dawson's re- 
port of 1888, and tap the mineral belt of the 
A¥est and North at a nominal cost, the total 
distance from here to Klondike in a straight 
line being only 1,100 miles, while the near- 
est now used is about 3,400 miles. Our pro- 
posed route has 250 miles of wagon road now 
almost ready for use, another 250 miles is re- 
ported to be through prairie and bluff, and 
it is supposed that between 600 and 700 miles 
could be completed between now the first 
of December next. We would respectfully 
recommend that Mr. McConnell have charge of 
the survey, as he has had experience on part of 
route during the geological survey, and thus 
save a lot of valuable time. The resolution is 
respectfully submitted." Mr. F. Fraser Tims 
is chairman of the committee. 

There is a new route to the Klondike. Let 
the voyager buy his canoe at Winnipeg, on the 
Eed Eiver of the North, float it down stream 
(north) to Lake Winnipeg, then cross Lake Winni- 
peg to the mouth of Saskatchewan Eiver, then 



108 Klondike. 

follow that river up stream to the forks, where 
the North Branch empties its waters into the 
Saskatchewan. Follow from there the North 
Branch up stream to White Whale Lake. Here 
is the first transfer overland, ten miles westward 
to Pembina Eiver. Then float down stream on 
the Pembina Kiver to the Athabasca, thence 
down stream to Lake Athabasca, crossing it and 
taking the Slave Eiver down stream. Crossing 
the Great Slave Lake, take the Mackenzie Eiver 
northward (down stream) until the mouth of the 
Liard or Mountain Eiver is reached. Follow 
the Liard or Mountain Eiver up stream to Simp- 
son Lake, where the second and last transfer by 
land occurs, fifty miles northward to Francis 
Lake, which is the headwaters of the Pelly Eiver. 
Float down this Pelly Eiver to the Yukon, 
thence down the Yukon, prospecting as you go, 
until your El Dorado is reached. 

This country, until Great Slave Lake is 
reached, is filled with all sorts of game. It will 
take no longer to go this route than it will to go 
by vessel from Seattle to St. Michael, at the 
mouth of the Yukon, and thence 1,800 miles up 
the Yukon. 

A Caribou mining man claims he has found a 
road into the Klondike country, which starts 
from that ancient and renowned placer ground. 
This route starts from the upper end of Stuart 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 109 

Lake, about 500 miles above Ashcroft, B. 0. 
For sixteen miles above Ashcroft there is an ex- 
cellent wagon road, which brings the traveler to 
Upper Fraser Eiver, which is navigable for 350 
miles for light steamers. 

Miners provided with pack horses need not 
bother with rivers and lakes, as the distance to 
the fort can be traveled with ease by pack train. 
No feed need be carried for horses, as there is an 
abundance of grass the entire distance. 

From Fort Connelly the route would be to 
Telegraph Creek, over prairie country. From 
Telegraph Creek to Klondike travel is easy. The 
entire route is said to present many preferable 
features to the water route via the coast and 
through the lakes to the Yukon Eiver. 

This route takes the traveler through what 
will probably prove one of the greatest mineral 
producing countries in the world. Many rich 
creeks will undoubtedly be found, which will 
make it unnecessary for prospectors to go further 
north, and will make room for thousands who 
will be crowded out of the Klondike region. 
The new overland route places the Klondike 
country within 1,300 miles of Seattle and within 
1,000 miles of railroad communication. 

One adventurous Norwegian, N. Anderson, of 
Rossland, B. C, purposes piloting a party of his 
countrymen into the Klondike country. He will 



110 Klondike. 

go to Norway and there organize the party, select- 
ing only those who are strong, hardy and used to 
skis or Norwegian snowshoes. His idea is to 
strike oS from the Fraser Eiver and shape a 
course for the headwaters of the Mackenzie Eiver, 
and follow that stream far enough north and 
then make for the headwaters of the Yukon, and 
follow that stream down. The upper portions of 
the Yukon and its confluents there have never 
been prospected by white men, and he feels cer- 
tain that during the trip rich placers will be 
found. 

"All roads lead to Eome," and there are 
many ways of reaching the auriferous region of 
the Upper Yukon. One of them is thus de- 
scribed by a writer in The Hamilton Spectator : 

"Canadians should awaken to the fact that 
they have emphatically 'the inside track' to 
their own gold fields — a route not half the dis- 
tance, largely covered by railways and steam- 
boats, with supply stations at convenient inter- 
vals all the way. By this route the gold fields 
can be reached in two months or six weeks, and 
the cost of travel is ridiculously cheap — nearly 
anybody can afford to go even now, and by spring 
it should be fitted out for the accommodation of 
any amount of traffic. For the details of the 
information the Spectator is indebted to A. H. 
Heming, of this city, the artist who accom- 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. Ill 

panied Mr. Whitney in his journey toward the 
barren lands, and the data may be accepted as 
correct, as they were secured from the Hudson 
Bay officials. 

"The details of the inland Canadian route, 
briefly, are as follows: By Canadian Pacific rail- 
way to Calgary, and thence north by rail to Ed- 
monton; from there by stage to Athabasca 
Landing, forty miles; then there is a continuous 
waterway for canoe travel to Fort McPherson, at 
the mouth of the Mackenzie Eiver, from which 
point the Peel Eiver lies southward to the gold 
region. The exact figures are as follows: 

"Edmontonto Athabasca Landing, 40; to Fort 
McMurray, 240; Fort Chippewyan, 185; Smith 
Landing, 102; Fort Smith, 16; Fort Eesolution, 
194; Fort Providence, 168; Fort Simpson, 161; 
Fort Wrigley, 136; Fort Norman, 184; Fort 
Good Hope, 174; Fort McPherson, 282. Total, 
1,882. 

"There are only two portages on this route of 
any size — that from Edmonton to Athabasca 
Landing, over which there is a stage and wagon 
line, and at Smith's Landing, sixteen miles, over 
which the Hudson Bay Company has a tramway. 
There are four or five other portages of a few 
hundred yards, but with these exceptions there 
is a fine 'down-grade' water route all the way. 
It is the old Hudson Bay trunk line to the north 



112 Klondike. 

that has been in use for nearly a century. Wher- 
ever there is a lake or long stretch of deep-water 
river navigation, the company has small freight 
steamers which ply back and forward during the 
summer between the portage points or shallows. 
With comparatively little expenditure the com- 
pany, or the government, can improve the facili- 
ties along the line so that any amount of freight, 
or any number of passengers, can be taken into 
the gold region at less than the time and cost 
that it takes Americans to reach it from Port St. 
Michael, at the mouth of the Yukon, to the 
Klondike, exclusive of the steamer trip of 2,500 
miles from Seattle to Port St. Michael. 

"Canadians can leave here on a Monday at 
11:15 A.M. and reach Edmonton on Friday at 7 
P.M. From that point a party of three men with 
a canoe should reach Fort McPherson easily in 
from fifty to sixty days, provided they are able- 
bodied young fellows with experience in that 
sort of travel. They will need to take canoes 
from here, unless they propose to hire Indians 
with large birch-bark canoes to carry them. 
Birch-bark canoes can be secured of any size up 
to the big ones manned by ten Indians that carry 
three tons. But birch barks are not reliable un- 
less Indians are taken along to doctor them and 
keep them from getting water-logged. The 
Hudson Bay Company will also contract to take 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 113 

freight northward on the steamers until the close 
of navigation. Travelers to the gold mines 
leaving now would probably reach Fort McPher- 
son before navigation closed. 

"Any Canadians who are anxious to get into 
the Klondike ahead of the Americans can leave 
between now and August 1, reach Fort McPher- 
son, and if winter comes on they can exchange 
their canoes for dog trains, and reach the Klon- 
dike without half the difficulty that would be 
experienced on the Alaska route. The great 
advantage of the inland route is that it is an 
organized line of communication. Travelers 
need not carry any more food than will take 
them from one Hudson Bay post to the next, 
and there is abundance of fish and wild fowl en 
route. They can also be in touch with such civ- 
ilization as prevails up there, can always get as- 
sistance at the posts, and will have some place 
to stay should they fall sick or meet with an ac- 
cident. If they are lucky enough to make their 
pile in the Klondike, they can come back by the 
dog sled route during the winter. (There is one 
winter mail to Fort McPherson in winter). Dogs 
for teams can be purchased at nearly any of the 
line of Hudson Bay posts, that form a chain of 
road-houses on the trip. Parties traveling alone 
will not need to employ guides until they get 
near Fort McPherson, and from there on to 



114 Klondike. 

Klondike, as the rest of the route from Edmon- 
ton is so well defined, having been traveled for 
years, that no guides are required. 

"You don't need a couple of thousand dollars 
to start for Klondike to-morrow by the Edmon- 
ton route. All you need is a good constitution; 
some experience in boating and camping, and 
about $150. Suppose a party of three decide to 
start. First, they will need to purchase a canoe, 
about $35 or less; first-class ticket from Hamil- 
ton to Edmonton, $70.40; second-class, ditto, 
$40.90; cost of food at Edmonton for three men 
for two months (should consist of pork, flour, 
tea and baking powder), $35; freight on canoe 
to Eort McPherson, $23. Total for three men 
from Hamilton to Eort McPherson, provided 
they travel second-class on the Canadian Pacific 
Eailway (they can travel in a Pullman coming 
back), will be $218.70. These figures are fur- 
nished by Mr. Heming, who has been over the 
route 400 miles north of Edmonton, and got the 
rest of his data from the Hudson Bay officials. 

"If three men chip in $150 each they would 
have a margin of over $200 for purchasing their 
tools, and for transport from Fort McPherson to 
the Klondike. This is how it may be done 
cheap, though Mr. Heming considers it ample 
for any party starting this summer. Prices will 
likely rise on the route when the rush begins. 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 115 

If the Hudson Bay people are alive to their in- 
terests they will forward a large amount of sup- 
plies for Fort McPherson immediately, and make 
it the base of supplies for the Klondike during 
the coming winter. Parties should consist of 
three men each, as that is the crew of a canoe. 
It will take 600 pounds of food to carry three 
men over the route. Passengers on the Cana- 
dian Pacific Railway are entitled to carry 100 
pounds of baggage. The paddling is all down 
stream except when you turn south up Peel 
Eiver, and sails should be taken, as there is 
often a favorable wind for days." 

The trip from Fort McPherson to Klondike by 
this route is the uncertain quantity. The water- 
shed between the Peel Eiver and the headwaters 
of the Stuart and Beaver Eivers — down one of 
which the descent to the Yukon could be made 
— is said to consist of comparatively low moun- 
tains, easy to cross. Mr. Ogilvie, the official sur- 
veyoi of the Canadian Government in the Yukon 
country, states that a prospector crossed the 
range from the headwaters of the Beaver to the 
Peel, and found only low, gravelly hills in the 
way. In cold weather this route would probably 
be nearly as impractical as the other routes. 

One expedition, composed of three men with 
supplies for two years, has been prepared by 
Messrs. R. H. Pope, M. P., A. L. White and 



116 Klondike. 

others, and it will follow the route. This little 
party will go by Edmonton, Athabasca Landing, 
and the Mackenzie Eiver. 

The prospect of the opening of an all-Cana- 
dian route to the Yukon has already brought 
forward claims from more than one Western city 
to the privilege of being the terminus of such a 
route. The Winnipeg Daily Nor'wester of July 
30 contains an article of considerable length, 
dealing with the part to be played by the Eed 
River in the establishment of a water route to 
the gold fields. It calls for the pushing on of 
the construction of locks at the St. Andrew's 
Rapids. It says: ''But for the obstructions at 
St. Andrew's, there would be uninterrupted 
steamboat navigation between Winnipeg and 
the Saskatchewan via the Red River and Lake 
Winnipeg. With the exception of the Grand 
Rapids, round which there is a tramway portage 
of some three miles, the Saskatchewan River is 
navigable for steamboats from Lake Winnipeg 
to Edmonton. At Edmonton a wagon road of 
ninety miles connects the Saskatchewan with 
the Athabasca, and this wagon road will soon be 
superseded by a railway, for the Canadian Pacific 
Railway Company has now announced its inten- 
tion of extending its Calgary and Edmonton 
branch to Athabasca Landing. There is thence 
continuous navigation by steamer and flatboat 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 117 

along the Athabasca Lake and Slave Kiver to 
near Fort Smith, where there is an obstruction 
of a few miles, round which, however, there is a 
good wagon road. From Fort Smith there is 
continuous steamboat navigation to the Arctic 
Ocean, via the Great Slave Lake and the Mac- 
kenzie River. There are a number of tributaries 
to the Mackenzie River, whose headwaters almost 
interlock with the headwaters of streams flowing 
westerly into the Yukon River. One of the most 
important of these is the Liard River, whose 
headwaters nearly meet the headwaters of the 
Pelly River, the most important branch of the 
Yukon in British territory. The Liard River is 
susceptible of steam navigation from its con- 
fluence with the Mackenzie to Fort Liard. Mr. 
McConnell, D.L.S., has navigated it by canoe be- 
tween Fort Liard and the confluence of the 
Dease River, and it is doubtless similarly navi- 
gable still further up. The Peel River, another 
affluent of the Mackenzie, has its headwaters 
very near the headwaters of the Macmillan 
River, which flows into the Pelly or Yukon 
River at Fort Selkirk. Tributaries to the Peel 
River also interlock with the headwaters of the 
Porcupine River, which joins the Yukon River 
at Fort Yukon. The Peel River is capable of 
steamboat navigation for over half its length, 
and is doubtless susceptible of flatboat naviga- 
tion almost its entire length. 



118 Klondike. 

Writing from Tort Saskatchewan to the Cal- 
gary Herald, under date of July 26, Mr. E. 
Fraser Tims makes the assertion that "Calgary 
should be the jumping-off place for the whole of 
the Yukon country, either for the upper or 
lower portion." He proceeds as follows: 

"For the Lower Yukon all that has to be 
done is to start either from Athabasca Landing 
or Peace Eiver Landing (preferably the latter, as 
there would only be one portage instead of 
more on the other route), and drop down stream 
all the way to the Mackenzie Eiver, to Peel Eiver 
(one of its western branches), and cross the 
divide about fifty miles, and then you find the 
Porcupine Eiver, which is one of the principal 
rivers flowing into the Yukon, and used to be 
the Hudson Bay Company's way of getting to 
Fort Yukon prior to the United States taking 
possession of that portion of Alaska. In addi- 
tion to it there may be several other feasible 
routes not so far north. 

"To reach the Upper Yukon country the 
route should be via the ruins of Fort Assini- 
boine. Lesser Slave Lake and Peace Eiver Land- 
ing. There is an old cart trail from Edmonton 
to Lesser Slave Lake, which has not been used 
for years, but which could be put in shape for 
wagons at a nominal cost, and from the lake to 
Peace Eiver Landing, a distance of about seventy 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 119 

miles, there is now in operation a good wagon 
road. From Peace Elver Landing to the Liard 
Eiver it is a country similar to that of Edmonton 
district, namely, prairie and bush. 

"A wagon road, in addition to the water route 
of the Liard, can be got by following up the 
valley of the Liard, or striking across country to 
Lake Francis, and this brings you to the upper 
part of the Yukon and close to where the big 
finds have been made. The total distance from 
Edmonton to the Upper Yukon would thus be 
about 850 miles. 



l20 Klondike. 



LIFE AT THE DIGGINGS. 

Nothing so vividly portrays life in a new 
region as letters from those that are struggling 
for a living there, and in accordance with this 
belief a collection of those most worthy of 
credit is here gathered together. They show 
what life really is in these new diggings on the 
edge of the Arctic circle. 

A former Seattle man writes: 

"Klon'dike, Alaska, June 15, 1897. 
"I got your letter all right, and will answer. 
We are here in safety and are glad we came, as I 
think we are strictly 'in it.' The mines are 
very rich and new strikes are being made all the 
time, but we may not get anything very big. 
We made a fine trip and are doing fairly well. 
Wages are $15 a day now and may keep at $1 to 
$1.50 per hour all winter, but some think they 
will come down to $1 per hour. I like the coun- 
try very well, but there is lots of hard work. 
Getting here our trip cost us two $336, or $168 
each, and three months' work to get in and settled. 
Have two claims each staked; Henry has earned 
nearly $400 at $15 a day, while I am on a lay 
representing a half interest in the claim. Don't 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 121 

know if there is anything in it or not. He is 
making our grubstake for the winter, while I am 
fishing for a good strike of our own. 

"I am well and like this country, but it is a 
queer place. Just think of having to go to bed in 
broad daylight, for the daylight is twenty-four 
hours loug here now. We will have our night 
next winter. It comes then in chunks and 
nearly forgets to go away. We have four or five 
months' grub, all but the flour, and that is $6 a 
sack, and that is low when a man can get 115 a 
day. I have not earned a dollar yet. Henry will 
soon have ^450 earned for our grub next winter. 
We are in Cahoots yet. I wrote home to-day. The 
man that takes this out had 140,000 out of his 
dump this spring, and only dug a little corner of 
his claim last winter. Hundreds are like him, and 
I hope to be some time in the next two years." 

One of the most interesting descriptions of a 
miner's life in the far North is contained in a 
letter written by Mr. E. S. Dunkle, of Adelphi, 
Ohio, and he says: 

"As I have a chance to send a note out will 
take advantage of the opportunity. I wintered 
on the Hootalinqua River, the first white that ever 
put in a winter there; the other boys did not get 
their grub over the mountain. They came over 
this spring. I had a great experience killing 
lynxes and Avolverines. 

"The boys brought me the news of this great 
gold strike here on the Klondike Eiver. The 
like has never been known. Some claims clean 
up $1,800 a day. Well, when I got the news I 



122 Klondike. 

waited till the river broke up, and gave the ice 
four days the start, then I loaded up my boat and 
started. I caught the ice the first day. It took 
me eight days to go eighty miles. Had it been 
clear of ice I would have made it in one day, but 
it was one jam after another. I slept one night 
on a cake of ice. 

"When I struck the Lewis Eiver I saw a tent 
on the opposite side of the river and I steered 
for it and found four white men. The first 
thing I asked for was tobacco, as I had not had a 
smoke since the 20th of March. They told me 
they were the last to stay over at Lake La Barge, 
and that there were 100 boats ahead of me. 
This was 2 o'clock in the afternoon. I talked an 
hour with them, then got in my boat and 
started. I had a hard sail and steered from the 
stern with a sweep and held the sail rope so I 
could let go at any time. My boat was 22 feet 
long and 36-inch beam. I had about 1,200 
pounds aboard. 

"Well, the wind favored me, and as the crowd 
did not carry any sails on account of the ice, I 
caught them the second day. I never saw such 
a rush. They were following the ice too close, 
and lots of boats were upset and everything lost, 
but only two were drowned. There were five in 
one boat that upset, and I picked one of them up 
and took him the rest of the way with me so that 
I might have some one to talk to. But I run 
the Five Fingers and the Pink Eapids myself. I 
made the 600-mile trip without accident. Old- 
timers say I made a great trip alone. 

"I came in with the push, but when we got 
here we found everything staked. Forty miles 



A Momual for Gold Seekers. 123 

to Circle City, and everybody rushed in and took 
everything up. But as soon as the water goes 
down there will be some rich strikes made on 
other gulches. I started on May 2, and landed 
here on the 21st, and have taken in $330 in four- 
teen days, but I can't keep it up all summer. I 
expect to make $2,000. I have a chance for a 
'lay' this winter to 'burn,' and if I get it I will 
make $10,000 before spring. If there are any 
new strikes I will get one of my own. I fooled 
last summer away, but I am in it now and in- 
tend to stay if I keep my health. I have not 
been sick a day yet. 

"Grub is very scarce here until the boats get 
up the Yukon. Men are going round with from 
$10,000 to $50,000 in their pockets and living on 
bread and beans. I have plenty of meat, flour, 
beans, sugar, rice, raisins, apples and peaches, 
but I keep them all covered up. 

"Bacon sold for $2 per pound and wages are 
$15 per day. There are about 1,000 men here. 
I saw one man come in with 100 pounds of gold. 
There has not been a single theft here. They 
would string him up too quick. 

Another Argonaut has this to say: 

"This is the land of gold. Unless all signs 
mislead, as signs have already mis'ed, not Cali- 
fornia in the days of '49, not Australia, nor the 
prolific 'Eand' in South Africa should rank 
with it. 

"I venture to estimate the output of gold for 
the season from the placers in the immediate 
neighborhood of Dawson at $5,000,000. Some 



124 Klondike. 

of the enthusiastic miners here say that the prod- 
uct for the season will be nearer 810,000,000 
than 15,000,000, but I have noticed a local incli- 
nation to brag and I want to be entirely within 
the facts in any information I send out from this 
camp of marvels. 

''Before this message can reach the coast the 
story of the richness of these gold-laden placers 
will be the property of the world, for by that 
time the miners who left here with their bags of 
gold will have reached the American cities with 
their burdens of dust and nuggets to convince 
the skeptical. 

"Dawson has grown like a mushroom since the 
news of the richness of the mines in this neigh- 
borhood reached the other diggings along the 
Yukon and its tributaries. The present popu- 
lation of this town is about 4,000. Men are 
streaming in as rapidly as their legs, or the river 
steamers, or horses will transport them. We in 
Dawson have a notion that by the close of the 
short summer season there will be 10,000 people 
in the town. 

"And such a town! It has some of the char- 
acteristics of mining camps that Bret Harte has 
made into story, but it has qualities that Cali- 
fornia camps never had and never could have. 
The game of life is played fast, and the boisterous 
side of mining camps is developing as the popu- 
lation increases. Now Dawson would match 
Tombstone when Tombstone was young. There 
are gamblers and dance halls by the score. 

"Up to this time we have had no men for 
breakfast. The police surveillance by the Cana- 
dian mounted force, and the sentiment of the 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 125 

camp sets against violence. But in the new 
population are many tough-looking fellows, not 
much disposed to work, and none of us would be 
surprised to hear the 'petulant pop of the pistol' 
before Dawson is many days older. 

"The principal source of fighting in frontier 
mining camps, disputes over the possession of 
claims, has been missing up to this time from 
the Klondike region. The Canadian mining 
laws seem fair, and they are regarded and are en- 
forced as well as possible by the small official 
force representing the Dominion Government. 
A section in the law prohibits a miner from 'tak- 
ing up' more than one claim in a neighborhood. 
This provision of law leads to caution in the se- 
lection of claims, and stops land-grabbers from 
controlling all the claims in sight. 

"I do not mean that all the residents of Daw- 
son are willing to obey the law merely because it 
is law, for I am certain that many of the men are 
worrying their brains to devise schemes to get 
hold of a number of claims, and would be glad 
to evade the rules. Miners generally work in 
groups, or companies, and each member of a 
group has an interest in all the claims worked 
for the joint account of himself and companions. 

"But the caution I have mentioned shows it- 
self in the big population of the town. There is 
no good reason that so many should be here, ex- 
cept this provision of law, restricting a man to 
one 'location.' When a miner has 'only one 
rattle out of the box' he takes time before mak- 
ing his throw. Therefore Dawson is a base of 
operations for men who go out from this center 
on prospecting trips. 



126 Klondike. 

"There are no openings here for newcomers to 
locate claims along any of the creeks where gold 
placers are known to exist. All the claims on 
the 'good ground' in this immediate vicinity 
have been taken up. A stranger has to get out 
and prospect in places where nothing definite is 
known, yet, of course, places just as likely to 
contain gold as any of the claims that have 
yielded the big finds to the miners. Parties 
leave here every day on prospecting tours. 
When a discovery of gold is reported crowds 
rush out in frenzy to the place. 

"The thronging in of men is making an impor- 
tant change in the prices paid for labor. While 
provisions are dear, the price of labor is going 
down. I have known a laborer to get 120 a day 
for his toil, but that price was not paid to every 
man. The indication now is that many men 
who must have food and clothing will crowd the 
town, and that the rate of wages will fall to the 
cost of subsistence. Flour is $6 a sack. 

"The weather is intensely disagreeable. The 
mercury has stood 87 degrees for two hours in 
the shade, and this is morning. And there are 
mosquitoes, millions and millions of mosquitoes — 
voracious as wharf rats, fiercely stinging. They 
contribute to the discomforts of living on the 
Klondike. 

"Many prospectors are seeking the quartz 
ledges, the parents of the supply of gold found 
in the placers along the banks of the streams. I 
suppose there must be such ledges, but this coun- 
try is rough and exploration is perilous. Not 
many men care to venture further than sixty 
miles in the unexplored regions. 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 127 

''Gold in one form or another has been found 
along a belt nearly 300 miles long. By the close 
of the season much more will be known of the 
character of this belt, for the prospecting going 
on is thorough, the circumstances and popula- 
tion considered, and more definite information 
should result. 

"When I can send a trustworthy report for 
the guidance of persons contemplating a trip to 
the Yukon next spring, I shall hurry it down. 
Just now not much that is definite can be said to 
persons not on the ground, because of the ab- 
sence of available openings for stakes in any 
district known to be worth working." 

The following was penned by a Baker City, 
Oregon, man: 

"Circle City, Alaska, Feb. 6. 

"Dear Mac: Your letter of September 6, 
1896, reached here to-day through the transpor- 
tation medium of a dog team from Juneau. 
There are about 600 whites wintering here, in- 
cluding five women. The nativity of the popu- 
lation is about evenly divided between the Amer- 
ican, the Canadian and the Tacoma man. The 
American and Canadian take life as it comes, but 
the poor Tacomaite seems lost. He wanders 
around in a dazed sort of way, evidently looking 
up a terminal site for the Northern Pacific Kail- 
road. 

"We had quite a visit from old Boreas last 
month. He made a stay of ten days with us, 
and while he frowned we hunted cover. The 
thermometers all froze up. The last one went 



128 Klondike. 

to pieces registering 72 degrees below zero. A 
bottle of pain killer I possessed, and the only one 
in camp, was as solid as my views on the financial 
question. The whisky that was called for in 
saloons was served on a napkin and doled out in 
solid four-cornered chunks. As a safeguard 
against the invasions of the atmosphere from the 
Pole we are blessed with good warm cabins and 
plenty of provisions of the following kinds: We 
have the choicest slabs from the two sides of the 
fat porkers that were converted into bacon for 
army purposes during the later American rebel- 
lion; we have strawberries in three varieties — the 
navy, the pink and the brown. We have the 
evaporated fruit, put up in several different 
boxes; and you put a few pounds from any box 
into a pail of water, boil for several hours, then 
rip up your imagination and sit down to a dish 
of boiled peaches, pears, prunes, apples or apri- 
cots; we have also the steaks that Cudahy & 
Armour deliver to the hungry public in two- 
pound cans; we have also the tripe and the ox 
tongue. We have the one X brand of flour, war- 
ranted to be easily distinguished from the white 
snow. We have the essence of the cow con- 
densed. We have the peelings of the onion put 
up in round cans and labeled 'Expressly for the 
Yukon trade.' 

"We have the lard from the oil wells of Penn- 
sylvania, and the butter from the stockyards of 
Chicago. We have the ground coffee put up in 
original packages without a brand or trademark 
to identify the owners or manufacturers. The 
texture of this coffee is very delicate, and when 
you boil you have no grounds for complaint, or 



A Mcmual for Gold Seekers. 129 

to throw out. We have a tea — a new discovery 
that has not yet reached the Eastern epicures; 
you put a heaping handful in one quart of boil- 
ing water and in five minutes you will have 
brewed a pale green fluid, a small cupful of 
which will satisfy for many days the hankerings 
and cravings of the most confirmed tea drinker. 

"We have the hotel and restaurant in bur- 
lesque. Every man is his own chief cook and 
chambermaid. For diversion we have the woes 
of others. For acquiring knowledge we have 
the stars to read, and for meditation we try to 
solve God's reason for putting a gateway into 
this useless country. 

"However, we are happy in our isolation. 
There is a sort of freedom in living here that is 
agreeable. The conventionalists of life have no 
claims upon me. I am beholden to no one and 
no one to me. As free as the wind to come and 
go, work or play, sing or howl. The pinnacle of 
my hopes, aspirations and desires is realized in 
that ecstatic moment when, filled to the chin 
with bacon and beans, I recline at my ease on the 
sunny side of a glacier and contemplate life 
through the hazy, somnolent contentment of a full 
stomach without a care to oppress me. 

"Circle City is just now deserted, everybody 
is up at Klondike, or preparing to go soon. 
Klondike River is over 200 miles up the Yukon 
from here, and gold was found on it a few 
months ago. It is the richest district the world 
has ever known, and will produce millions this 
year. I returned here from the Klondike yes- 
terday for grub and start back to-morrow. 
Flour is worth $100 per sack of fifty pounds, and 



130 Klondike. 

everything else in proportion, and none to be 
bought. Live dogs are worth from $2 to 15 per 
pound; they are the horses in this country. 

''The gravel is frozen from eighteen to twenty 
feet deep to bedrock, but we burn a shaft down 
and then drift, using fire instead of powder. The 
gravel runs in gold from $5 to 1150 per pan, and 
a young fellow on a claim above me panned out 
$40,000 in two days. I was ofEered 125,000 cash 
for my claim. I still hold the ground, and will 
be either a millionaire or a pauper in the fall. 
Men cannot be hired for wages. Every new- 
comer in the camp is offered big wages, as high 
as 150 a day, but seldom will any one work for 
another. The only phantom that stands in our 
way to the goal of the millionaire is Mr. Grub. 
I have provisions enough to last me until next 
June, and I am as well fixed as any man in the 
country. If the boats do not get up the river 
before July we will be in rather hard lines, but 
as one cannot help his ills by wailing them, we 
will look cheerful and feel certain that grub will 
be plentiful next year." 

Eeturned Yukonites deny the story told by 
Frank Moss, of Great Falls, Montana, to the effect 
that 2,000 graves at Foty-Mile Post tell of the 
terrible sufferings of the gold seekers. F. C. 
Bowker says that so far from there being over 
2,000 deaths on the Klondike during the past 
three years, there was nobody there to die until 
something less than a year ago, and since then 
there have been but three deaths in that whole 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 131 

district so far as known. In the graveyard at 
Forty-Mile Post, which has served for all that 
section for some years past, there are only be- 
tween thirty and forty graves. 

Mr. Ogilvie, the Dominion surveyor in charga 
of the district, in a report to the Dominion Gov- 
ernment complains sorely of the need of some 
kind of a court to settle the various claim dis- 
putes that are continually arising between the 
miners. He says that the force and virtue of 
miners' meetings prevailed until the mounted 
police made their apppearance, after which 
sneaks had full swing. 

The morality of the Klondike would seem to 
be of much higher order than is usually found in 
new mining camps, the presence of the mounted 
police seeming to have a most salutary effect. Mr. 
Ogilvie seems to regret it, for he says: 

''The man who was stabbed here in November 
has quite recovered, but may never have the 
same use of his back as of old, having received a 
bad cut there. His assailant is out on bail, 
awaiting the entrance of a judge to try him. As 
the police are here there will be no lynching; it 
is almost a pity there will not." 

Mr. Ogilvie takes up the subject of the liquor 
traffic also, saying: "The impression of the best 
men here, saloon men and all, is that the liquor 
trade should be regulatd, that no one but respon- 



132 Klondike. 

sible parties should be allowed to bring liquor in 
— men in business here of established reputation 
and having an interest in the country and the 
retail traffic — licensed as in the Eastern prov- 
inces, giving licenses to men of fair character 
only. Now any loafer who can gather enough 
money to secure a few gallons and a few glasses, 
and wants to have an idle time, sets up a saloon. 
It is my opinion that it is imperative that the busi- 
ness be brought under control at once, or it may 
develop phases that will be at least annoying in 
the future." 

An eyewitness says of the scenes in Dawson 
City: 

''Dawsoit City, N. W. T., June 17, 1897. 
"P. Brown. 

"Deae Sir: You request me to inform you all 
I could on the country, and I will tell you of it 
as it really is. We arrived safe and sound. We 
caught up with, and passed, nearly all who went 
over the summit ahead of us. We have been out 
and seen the mines. There are mines here that 
have taken out 1150,000 last winter to 150 feet 
of their claim. 

"This seems hard to believe; but when you see 
coal oil cans with more gold in them than you 
can lift, baking powder cans and pickle jars full 
to the brim, you begin to believe the marvelous 
stories. 

"Work is not so plentiful now as it is during 
the winter diggings. Wages are $10 a day at 
Dawson City, and $15 out at the mines. Flour 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 133 

is $6 a sack, sugar, 25 cents a pound; bacon, 70 
cents; eggs, $4 per dozen. Clothing is still 
dearer in proportion. Good stoves and tents are 
hard to get at any price. They say work will be 
more plentiful next winter. 

"Three steamboats have been up here this 
spring, so there are lots of provisions now. 
Dawson City is growing fast, although it is all 
tents yet. Lots sell from $100 to $8,000. If too 
many scab hands come in it will cut wages, but 
it is all right now. 

"There is plenty of prospecting going on this 
summer. Men are striking out in all directions. 
You said if you could be sure of $10 a day you 
would come up. A man is sure of nothing, but 
if he is willing to take the hardships he is bound 
to get more or less of it. A number of women 
came over the trail this spring. All of them 
that are willing to cook can sell all the bread 
they can cook at fifty cents a loaf. Meals are 
11.50. 

"That claim of J. O'Donnell's is on Forty-Mile 
Eiver at Poker Gulch. He sold his share last 
summer to Philip Kenney. Fred Hart and Bill 
Hase were his partners, and it is still owned by 
them. R. Crawford got beat out of his claim 
that he bought of Kelly in Seattle. 

"If you come up, bring light things, as there 
is more profit in them. We hear that it is al- 
most impossible to get the river boats to bring up 
freight, as they have more of their own than 
they can handle. Look this up, and if you are 
sure you can get through with freight bring all 
you can of first-class articles, and you will have 
good use or ready sale for them at once. 

"W. R. GOODE." 



134 KloTidihe. 

"P.S. — I hear thatE. Crawford has the matter 
decided in his favor at last, and got his share of 
the claim he bought of Kelly, and Kelly leaves 
for Seattle to-day on the boat. I think he is go- 
ing to try to boom the country for the benefit of 
the mine holders to get cheap labor. That is, as 
I see things, and I think it is right. There is 
lots of money here, and where there is lots of it 
a man certainly can get a little. Please excuse 
mistakes and dirt, as I am seated on the ground, 
writing on my knee, and fighting mosquitoes." 

A lady correspondent states: 

"Klondike, B. N. W., June 14, 1897. 

"We arrived at our destination the 11th of 
this month, our outfit in good shape and all well. 
We were just three months to the day on the 
trail. Everybody was dumfounded at the dis- 
covery — the biggest that has ever been made. 
Just think of it — $1,000 to the pan. Wages are 
$15 a day, and men are refusing every day to go 
to work for that. Money is plenty, and all the 
trading is being done with gold dust. Harry 
Ash is taking in $3,000 a day in his saloon. 
Meals are $1.50 each. A big business is being 
done in smuggling whisky over the border. 
The dogs are so bad here that they eat anything 
from the tin cans to rubber boots, and it stands 
a man in hand to look to his bacon. 

"I had a pleasant trip and had few hardships 
to encounter. We left so early that we had 
snow all the way, but the people that came a 
month earlier had a pretty tough time, for they 
had to pack everything, or hire it done, and had 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 135 

to endure more. The worst feature of the coun- 
try is the beastly mosquitoes. As far as the trip 
being dangerous, that depends a good deal on 
the men. One wants to get a good boat made, 
and with a map all is clear sailing in the right 
season. 

"There is another stampede on up a creek 
near here. The excitement is at a fever's height 
and men are exploring every little creek and hill 
in the country. These are drift diggings and it 
would not surprise me if there were better dig- 
gings struck during the summer, 

"The Indians here cannot speak much English. 
All they can say is 'sugar.' We could have got 
a whole mine, or 'lecraboo,' for twenty pounds of 
sugar. The moose and caribou are fine eating. 

"The place is very orderly, considering the big 
rush. There is a fort or military post about 
twenty-five or thirty miles from here, with lots of 
her majesty's soldiers, but we don't need them. 
The theaters, dance halls, and gambling houses 
are doing the biggest business here and scoop in 
most of the money." 

Joseph Ladue, the owner of the land upon 
which Dawson City has been built, has visited 
his native town, Plattsburg, New York, this sum- 
mer, and in the course of an interview he said: 

"We have nicer bars at Dawson than you have 
here. One of the bars there cost $750 right in 
San Francisco. The day I left Dawson my im- 
pression of the town was that it would become a 
great big place. When I came away there were 
probably close on to 3,000 people there. I think 



136 Klondike. 

perhaps of these seventy-five were women. A 
good many of the women were wives of the men 
who came, forty or fifty. 

"The dance hall was owned by Harry Ash. It 
is 40x80, a frame building covered with white 
drilling. They have an orchestra. There may 
be fifteen or twenty women there. There is no 
admission fee. You just go in and dance and 
patronize the establishment. Everything is fifty 
cents a drink. The women get a percentage of 
the receipts for dancing with the miners. Fre- 
quently when the miners feel flush, they give the 
women nuggets. 

"When I left Dawson there were ten saloons 
and only three restaurants. They charge $1.50 
for a meal, which consists of bacon, beans, bread, 
coffee, a piece of cheese, and dried fruit. The 
restaurants were well patronized. They sold 
everything they could rake or scrape. Bacon was 
$1 a pound, eggs as high as 15 a dozen in the 
winter. Flour is $12 a hundred pounds; sugar, 
20 cents for brown, and 25 cents for granulated. 
Butter is $1.50 a roll. 

"Tobacco sells for $1.50 a pound — chewing 
and fancy brands for smoking — plug cut is $2 a 
pound; cigars wholesale sell there for $90 to 
$150 per 1,000; a single cigar is 50 cents. It 
would sell here for five cents. 

"There are lots of children up there now. An 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 137 

immense lot of children came in this spring. 
There is a school at Circle City, and one is being 
built in Dawson this year. The teacher in Circle 
City — which is near the Arctic circle and the 
furthest city north — was an American from Neb- 
raska. I don't know what her name was, or 
what pay she got — probably $75 a month. 

"There were no churches in Dawson up to 
this time. There will be a Catholic church built 
this summer. There will probably be also an 
English church and a Presbyterian church too. 
Bishop Rowe, of Boston, has the latter in 
charge. Father Judge was there when I came 
away. 

"There is a theatrical company in that dis- 
trict. It has been playing at Circle City. The 
leading actor and manager of it is George Snow. 
His wife is the leading lady. They are real 
good. They have all sorts of plays — 'Uncle 
Tom's Cabin' one night, 'Old Kentucky' the 
next, 'Camille' the next, 'The Newsboy' the next. 
It is a repertory company. They will have a 
theater in Dawson this winter. 

"We have Dr. Willis, a Canadian physician; Dr. 
Chambers, from Yakima, Washington. I think 
they charge according to the way a man is fixed, 
I know one man got a finger taken off and was 
charged $200 for the job. These doctors have 
complete medicine chests. There is no drug 
store except what Dr. Willis has. 



138 Klondike. 

"We have a graveyard started and two graves 
in it. One is that of Bert Stickney, who died a 
natural death on Lake Labarge, and the other is 
that of 0. G. Felch, who died of heart disease in 
the room over my office. We had service over 
these men, conducted by a Church of England 
man. 

"There was a lawyer's office started just before 
I left by two Seattle lawyers. I do not remem- 
ber hearing that any babies were born in Dawson 
before I left. 

"The diggings are up the Klondike to the 
east of Dawson City. They begin within two 
miles of the town site, and extend twenty miles 
at least on both sides of the Klondike River. 
The district is about twenty miles square — that 
is, the gold-bearing district where the placer 
miners are. 

"The whole country for twenty miles between 
the Yukon and the Klondike, up to the point 
where Dawson is situated, is composed of creeks, 
and all along these claims are staked out. 

"The people who go there now will have to 
look for new fields. Pretty nearly all of the 
Klondike has been monopolized, and nearly all 
the claims taken up. From there they will have 
to go in an easterly direction to the Stuart 
River. That is about 100 miles east, and is the 
nearest district in which there is any promise of 
gold development, and it is uncertain. 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 139 

"The Chilkoot Pass is not dangerous in the 
summer time. It is a defile in the mountains 
about thirty miles long, with just an Indian trail 
leading up to the summit. In the winter the 
danger lies in the storms which are liable to 
overtake the traveler. 

"Men can cross that pass with as little danger 
in the summer as they can cross any other moun- 
tain pass. If you turn a horse loose on the trail 
he will walk over himself. I never heard of any- 
body starving to death on the Chilkoot route. I 
have heard of their being lost. I never heard of 
their dying of hardship. In the winter time the 
United States station has mail every month. 

"I do not think the company's boats can bring 
supplies into Dawson for more than 3,000 men. 
There are probably 5,000 there now, and more 
going." 

Heretofore mails have been somewhat infre- 
quent and slightly irregular in the Yukon postal 
district, but they will doubtless be managed in a 
much more satisfactory way this winter. In 
view of the great number of American citizens 
who have gone or contemplate going to the Klon- 
dike gold fields in Alaska, the post-office depart- 
ment has made additional contracts for the 
carrying of mails to and from that region. 

Since July 1 contracts for mail over what is 
known as the overland route from Juneau to 



140 Klondike. 

Circle City have been made by the department. 
The round trip over the Chilkoot Pass, and by 
way of the chain of lakes and the Lewis Eiver, 
takes about a month, the distance being about 
900 miles. The department has just been noti- 
fied by the contractor's agent that a party will 
start regularly twice each month. The cost 
is about 1600 for the round trip. The Chil- 
koot Pass is crossed with the mail by means of 
Indian carriers. On the previous trips the car- 
riers, after finishing the pass, built their boats, 
but they now have their own to pass the lakes 
and the Lewis Eiver. 

In the winter transportation is carried on by 
means of dogsleds, and it is hoped that under 
the present contracts there will be no stoppage, 
no matter how low the temperature may go. 
The contractor has reported that he was sending 
a boat in sections by way of St. Michael, up the 
Yukon Eiver, to be used on the waterway of the 
route, and it is thought much time will be saved 
by this next spring, as formerly it was necessary 
for the carriers to stop and build boats or rafts 
to pass the lakes. 

Contracts have been made with two steamboat 
companies for two trips from Seattle to St. 
Michael. When the steamers reach St. Michael, 
the mail will be transferred to the flat-bottomed 
boats running up the Yukon as far as Circle 



A Mcmual for Gold Seekers. 141 

City. It is believed the boats now run further 
up. 

The contracts for the overland route call for 
only first-class matter, whereas the steamers in 
summer carry everything, up to five tons, each 
trip. 

Mr. J. A. French, of the District Engineering 
Corps, and a member of the United States Coast 
and Geodetic Survey Expedition which made 
such a thorough tour of the Alaska gold fields, 
during the years 1889-90 and '91 when locating 
the 141st meridian, was asked if there was much 
chance of the expeditions which are leaving the 
country in August reaching the Yukon in time 
to ascend the river before ice forms. 

"There is very little chance that they can do 
so," said Mr. French. "Of course there is a 
possibility that the river may close late this year, 
and thus give them an opportunity of getting 
through, but this is a matter of conjecture only, 
and the majority of persons who are leaving for 
the far North at the present time will be obliged 
to winter at St. Michael. Those going by way 
of the Chilkoot Pass will be more successful 
about getting through, as it is but a short dis- 
tance comparatively from Seattle, and can be 
traversed before the pass closes in the middle of 
September. The ice forms early on the Yukon, 
and that cuts off communication with the Klon- 
dike. 



142 Klondike. 

"Of course communication is possible by 
sledges, but that is only of nominal use, and is 
scarcely to be termed a means of transportation. 
And then again the latter part of September and 
the early portion of October are the dangerous 
periods for travel in that region. There is very 
little snow, and what snow there is usually falls 
during this period. Then it bcomes so cold that 
snowing becomes impossible, and until March 
the miners and settlers in the Klondike will be 
troubled with no other snowfall. Instead of 
snow there is a daily fall of frost, which gradually 
increases the depth of the light snow which 
falls in the early fall, but scarcely in a quantity 
to exceed six inches. The frost falls contin- 
ually, and the air is always filled with it. The 
frost gradually aguments the previous light 
snowfall, and before the snows of the spring be- 
gin have increased the depth of the snow to 
about eighteen inches. 

"The cold reaches an extremity which is al- 
most impossible for us to realize, but the condi- 
tions of the atmosphere are such that the suffer- 
ing is not great in proportion. The Indians of 
the region have, to a great extent, solved the 
diflBcult question of keeping warm. They build 
log cabins, which are closed as tightly as mud 
and lichens can make them. They leave no 
space for a door, as that would facilitate the en~ 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 143 

trance of cold; instead they follow out a plan of 
the Esquimaux and begin an entrance some dis- 
tance from the hut. Down in the ground they 
dig a passage until it reaches underneath the 
center of the cabin, when the passage is directed 
upward, and the Indian finishes his door in the 
center of the house. 

"There is a larger natural food supply than 
the majority of people imagine. A miner who 
enters the region in the spring could well supply 
his needs for the following winter. The river 
lands are filled with a species of cranberry, which 
is as palatable as the berries of our own Massa- 
chusetts. The berries are very small and tart, 
but are vastly superior to the ordinary Christmas- 
time berry, and can be kept during the entire 
season. Then also the Yukon Valley is in the 
line of the moose and caribou trails, over which 
the animals travel on their way to the north or 
south at different periods of the year, and it is 
possible for a hunter to supply himself with 
meat which can be frozen and kept in perfect 
condition until summer again. 

"The great river is alive with salmon also, 
some of which reach an enormous size. One 
catch of five salmon which I saw while there 
averaged fifty-four pounds to a fish. The largest 
one was a beauty, and weighed exactly seventy- 
four pounds. The Indians catch these fish, 



144 Klondike. 

string them on a pole and throw them on the 
top of their huts to freeze. Then during the 
winter when they wish one, they go out and 
bring it into the warm cabin. The heat grad- 
ually thaws it until it is to some degree soft. 
Then they eat it with as much gusto, and appar- 
ently as much pleasure, as we would cat ice 
cream, and there is nothing frozen fish resembles 
more than ipe cream. They are of a delicate 
pink color, which in the frozen state of the fish 
is as exact a counterfeit as one could imagine." 

John Muir, the California naturalist and dis- 
coverer of the great Muir glacier, writes of the 
"The Alaska Trip" in the Midsummer Holiday 
(August) Century. Of Fort Wrangel, Mr. Muir 
writes: 

•*0n the arrival of the steamer most of the 
passengers make haste to go ashore to see the curi- 
ous totem-poles in front of the massive timber 
houses of the Indians, and to buy curiosities, 
chiefly silver bracelets hammered from dollars 
and half-dollars, and tastefully engraved by 
Indian workmen; blankets better than those of 
civilization, woven from the wool of wild goats 
and sheep; carved spoons from the horns of these 
animals; Shamen rattles, miniature totem-poles, 
canoes, paddles, stone hatchets, pipes, baskets, 
etc. The traders in these curious wares are 
mostly women and children, who gather on the 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 145 

front platforms of the half-dozen stores, sitting 
on their blankets seemingly careless whether 
they sell anything or not, every other face black- 
ened hideously, a naked circle about the eyes 
and on the tip of the nose where the smut has 
been weathered off. The larger girls and the 
young women are brilliantly arrayed in ribbons 
and calico, and shining among the blackened 
and blanketed old crones like scarlet tanagers in 
a flock of blackbirds. Besides curiosities, most 
of them have berries to sell, red, yellow, and 
blue, fresh and dewy, and looking wondrous 
clean as compared with the people. The Indians 
are proud and intelligent nevertheless, and 
maintain an air of self-respect which no amount 
of raggedness and squalor can wholly subdue. 

"Many canoes may be seen along the shore, 
all fashioned alike, with long, beak-like sterns 
and prows, the largest carrying twenty or thirty 
persons. What the mustang is to the Mexican 
vaquero,the canoe is to the Indian of the Alaskan 
coast. They skim over the glassy, sheltered 
waters far and near to fish and hunt and trade, 
or merely to visit their neighbors. Yonder goes 
a whole family, grandparents and all, the prow of 
their canoe blithely decorated with handfuls of 
the purple epilobium. They are going to gather 
berries, as the baskets show. Nowhere else in 
my travels north or south, have I seen so many 



14:6 Klondike. 

berries. The woods and meadows and open 
spaces along the shore are full of them — huckle- 
berries of many species, salmon berries, rasp- 
berries, blackberries, currants and gooseberries, 
with fragrant strawberries and serviceberries on 
the drier grounds, and cranberries in the bogs, 
sufficient for every worm, bird, and human being 
in the Territory, and thousands of tons to spare. 
The Indians at certain seasons, roving in merry 
bands, gather large quantities, beat them into 
paste, and then press the paste into square 
cakes and dry them for winter use, to be eaten 
as a kind of bread with their oily salmon. Ber- 
ries alone with the lavish bloom that belongs to 
them are enough to show how fine and rich the 
northern wilderness must be." 

W. D. Yingst, of Salt Lake City, two years 
ago camped on the spot where Dawson now 
stands. He prospected the country for miles 
about that point, and took back to Utah several 
hundred dollars in nuggets, the largest of which 
weighed about an ounce and a half. For the 
benefit of those who are contemplating an ad- 
venturous trip to Alaska, Yingst readily con- 
sented to give the Tribune of his native city all 
his experience in the Klondike. 

"It was two years ago that I made the trip," 
said he. "I want to say before going into de- 
tails that it is a dangerous undertaking, and 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 147 

nobody ought to start out to make it with a 
dream of sudden wealth made at one blow. 
Nobody who is not in perfect health should 
think of venturing into that region. If they do 
they commit a crime against themselves and 
those who may be dependent upon them, as well 
as those who are to become their companions in 
the struggle." 

The warning was peculiarly emphasized by a 
casual survey of Yingst's proportions. He is a 
massively molded man, full of animal vigor and 
great endurance. The scales will tell in his 
favor 190 pounds of solid flesh and muscle. His 
cool and decisive manner in conversation lend 
the conviction of a phlegmatic temperament, not 
easily disturbed by hardships or danger. 

"Let me explain why those of delicate consti- 
tutions should not go to the Klondike," he con- 
tinued, "and Avhy they should not start at this 
time of the year, especially. In the first place 
you need 11,000 in capital, 800 to 900 pounds of 
provisions, and everything necessary in the way 
of personal effects. In the next place you must 
get into the Klondike before October 1, if you 
have the determination to stick it out. After 
that date an attempt to make it is extremely 
hazardous, for the very apparent reason that in 
the face of falling snow and frozen streams your 
journey would become so necessarily slow that 



148 Klondike. 

the rapid winter of the Arctic circle is almost 
certain to lock the traveler in its embrace and 
cut off escape to the coast. All of these difficul- 
ties require the greatest sort of endurance. 

"Now as to the reason why it would be a crime 
to foist yourself upon a limited population whose 
stores of provisions are never wholly adequate. 
Those whose supplies give out before the end of 
the winter-locked season are dependent upon 
their neighbors whose better discretion has pro- 
vided for emergencies. Every person in the de- 
plorable fix that I am describing cuts down the 
total provisions of the camp so much per capita 
and thereby increases the danger of starvation, 
for men who are fighting with Nature to wrest 
something from her in the face of adversity are 
too generous to let a fellow creature suffer. Ill- 
ness is a hardship to those who are in health, for 
some one must attend to the wants of the sick 
person, and in the end the convalescent and his 
nurse have lost their time and broken their 
spirits in the mad rush. 

"It must be recollected that civil authority 
does not really extend to these isolated points. 
The law is that made and enforced by the 
miners. It is my belief that the same methods 
adopted when I spent a winter in that region 
will be put into effect before the beginning of 
this winter. All those who have not provided 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 149 

themselves with enough to go through the winter 
will be compelled to leave the camp by starting 
back to the coast. There will be no choice in 
the matter, either. It is a question of life or 
death with the population of Dawson, and no 
chances are apt to be taken. If it comes to a 
serious situation among those who remain the 
provisions of the camp will probably be called 
into a general storehouse, and every man and 
woman be given their allowance in common. 
There will be no use of kicking in that country; 
every one must abide by the will of the majority. 
"Travel overland in Alaska, while confined to 
the level, can best be made in the fall of the 
year, not later than October 1. The ground has 
hardened then, giving admirable footing and 
quick travel. At no time during the winter does 
more than two feet of snow fall in the level 
country. I am not speaking of the fall in the 
mountains, which is unspeakable. Temperature 
is not a serious thing if you are clothed accord- 
ing to the fashion of the country. The summer 
season is no time to travel overland. We had 
some experience in that line while prospecting. 
The whole surface is covered with a species of 
moss oout eight inches thick, and beneath it 
ground that was thawed for about eighteen 
inches. Every foot of the march you sink to the 
knee, impeding progress and consuming provi- 



150 Klondike. 

sions at the same time. These conditions of the 
surface also make prospecting more favorable in 
the winter season. We burned holes through 
the frozen ground and began our sluicing. 
Water has to be reached through the ice, but 
there is an abundant flow. I might add that the 
summer weather is intolerably hot. 

"Clothing is an important thing to consider. 
Three suits of underwear of the fleece-lined 
variety are imperative. Hip rubber boots, at 
least two pairs ought to be taken, and besides a 
heavy canvas coat lined with fleece. Ordinarily 
coarse, heavy outside wear is sujOficient. Fur- 
lined mits and warm caps are also necessary." 

Will Eowles, bookkeeper for the Chattanooga 
Brewing Company, has just received an interest- 
ing letter from Ben Thomas, a friend of his who 
is in Alaska. Young Thomas went to Alaska some 
months ago from Denver, Colorado, and is do- 
ing well. He says: "We are all getting rich out 
here. Flour is selling as high as 160 a barrel, 
while coffee is sold almost by the grain. It is 
very high. I am doing some prospecting, but 
most of my time is devoted to carrying on my 
business. This is the place for young men, and 
I advise you to come out here if you can. 

"Now this is the fact. There is gold in Alaska 
for whoever wants it, plenty of it^ but it is des- 
perately hard to get. The man who comes here 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 151 

looking for it must make np his mind to endure 
greater hardships than he has ever endured be- 
fore. He has got to live on less and work 
harder, to get along with less comfort, and to 
put up with more things he doesn't like than he 
has ever done before. He must be willing to 
shut himself off from the outside world and 
much of the time from the society of his kind. 
He must be prepared to brave all sorts of dangers 
and to take his life in his hands, if need be. He 
must be fearless, courageous, strong, healthy and 
active. H he is all these and a hard worker, 
he'll get his gold, and if he has good mining 
sense he'll get a lot of it. It's here, plenty of 
it, more than will be taken out for a good many 
years. But it takes brains, muscle and grit to 
get it. 

*'The Indians have no idea of its value. In 
exchange for two hankerchiefs, a shirt and a pair 
of old pants, Mr. Grewe and his partner bought 
a caribou, which supplied them with fresh meat 
for a long time. Many of these animals are 
killed by the Indians, and that is where the 
only obtainable fresh meat comes from in the 
winter. 

"A friend of mine has been down the Yukon 
to St. Michael. On the trip either way he says 
that at this time of the year there is no danger, 
and at most, for people of tough as well as of 



152 Klondike. 

tender skin, discomfort and inconvenience, on 
account of the myriads of mosquitoes, all of 
which are active twenty-four hours a day. 

"It may seem strange that there should be 
such vast swarms of these insects in such a 
country, but it is easily explained. All over the 
surface of the country there is moss fifteen 
inches to two feet thick. In the winter the 
larvae of these insects lie buried in the moss, 
safely protected from the cold under a blanket 
of snow. When the arctic summer sun melts 
the snow, the insects burst upon the world. Thfe 
mosquitoes are not of the singing kind — they go 
to work at once. 

"In the summer, too, traveling is difficult. 
On a sled over the snow, a man can pull 400 to 
500 pounds, but in the summer one can hardly 
stagger along with 150 pounds, because the moss 
is soggy mud and water, and at every step he 
sinks to his knees. It is for this summer 
weather that rubber hip boots are essential. 

"There has been a good deal of inquiry as to 
how the summit is crossed without very hard 
work. Let the man who undertakes the trip 
from Juneau at this time of the year be pre- 
pared for a good deal of back-tripping. This is 
very discouraging work. All the men who take 
in their year's provisions must expect it. Back- 
tripping means carrying the supplies in install- 



A Manual J^or Gold Seekers. 153 

ments. A man may carry 150 to 200 pounds a 
few miles; then he must go back to another 
supply, and so he really will go over some parts 
of the road five, six or seven times. Some men 
can get Indians to carry their pack for them 
over the summit; but with such numbers as are 
going there will not be enough natives to do the 
carrying. For those who cannot secure the serv- 
ices of natives, or who cannot afford to pay 
them, back-tripping is heart-trying. I have seen 
great husky men sit down and cry like children 
under this back-tripping. There are caches 
along the road, and places Avhere the install- 
ments can be lodged on the trips from stage to 
stage. Sheep Camp is one of these places." 

The Alaska Indians are not very satisfactory 
laborers. They do all the piloting on the river, 
and are used to carry wood at fuel stations. 
When an attempt is made to hurry them they go 
slower than before, and just laugh at the impa- 
tience of the travelers. Many of the women are 
married to white men. It is very rare to find an 
Indian who does any mining for himself. I only 
know one, Minook, a Russian half-breed, who 
has pretty good diggings on Minook Creek at 
the lower ramparts. He hires Indians at about 
$3 per day, and is able to make them work. 
About twenty white miners have got in there 
now. Conflicting reports are current as to the 
value of the claims. 



154 Klondike. 

The miners at Forty-Mile and Dawson City, 
to prevent trouble between white men and In- 
dians, have forbidden the sale of liquor to the 
natives on pain of expulsion from the camp. A 
sort of native liquor called hoochenoo is made 
from black-strap molasses, fruit, sour dough and 
brown sugar. It takes about a week to brew and 
its powers of intoxication are potent. In absence 
of other liquors miners sometimes indulge in this 
stuff. 

There is not as much barter with the Indians 
as formerly. They have passed the bead and 
gewgaw stage, and are disposed to accept only 
money or useful articles. The trading com- 
panies dispose of a great deal of "Siwash to- 
bacco" to them. This is long leaf tobacco in its 
natural state. Around Forty-Mile and Dawson 
the Indians buy the manufactured tobacco. 
They have all become great dandies and dress 
better than the white men. Many of them buy 
watches. There are many Indians in the coun- 
try, especially wherever there is a mining camp. 

One of the younger miners writes: 

"We are getting ready to start out to-night; 
think of putting 75 or 100 pounds on your back 
and starting out for a week or two, wading in 
marshes up to your knees or mud to the same 
depth. Well, that is what a prospecter can ex- 
pect in Alaska. The moss is a foot deep every- 
where, wet, and the mosquitoes are just awful. 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 155 

What few horses are here are faring hard, as 
feed is scarce, but they charge II a pound for 
packing stuff to the mines from Dawson, which 
is six to twelve miles distant, so a man with a 
few horses can make all the money he wants. A 
good dog is worth 1250.'* 

The gold production is attended by com- 
mensurate difficulty, delay, expense and priva- 
tion in the mining itself. The short summer of 
ninety days generates only sufficient heat to 
melt the snow, the ground itself still remaining 
frozen, it being necessary to pick it out like so 
much rock, and then melt the icy particles over 
a fire preparatory to washing. 

It takes seventy days to get a load of freight 
from the coast into the mines, and, once there, 
flour sells at 130 per hundred, meal at $18 per 
hundred, meat at 81 per pound, whisky at $1.50 
per drink, mining tools and supplies and cloth- 
ing sell at almost their weight in gold, while 
medicine and hospital and surgical accessories 
are priced above rubies and diamonds. 

Wages per day run from $12 to $16, with board 
per day at from $4 to $8. 

Travel and freighting to and fro between St. 
Michael and the mines is through the medium of 
the dog-teams. They readily sell for $150 per 
head, a crack team of six being worth $1,000. 
The dogs, on fair Alaska mountains roads, will 



156 Klondike, 

make from twenty to twenty-five miles a day 
■with a load of freight, while private traveling 
sledges have records of fifty miles and upward 
per day. The vehicle used for both freight and 
passenger traffic is a combination canoe and 
sled. 

"The Klondike district takes its place as the 
richest placer diggings the world has ever seen. 
Last week we published an account of the result 
of the spring clean-up/' says the Alaska Miner, 
"and as we glibly wrote of thousands and tens 
of thousands rescued from the sands of El Dorado 
and Bonanza Creeks we ourselves looked upon 
the account almost with incredulity. 

"But there is no occasion to be alarmed at the 
istartling nature of the statement. We have 
been very close to the most reliable sources of 
information for many months past. As far back 
as last March we gave a pan value analysis of 
the richest creeks. It is interesting in the line 
of recent events to look back and make compari- 
sons. 

"We talked with several men at that time who 
had spent most of the winter on the creeks, and 
as this was previous to the big rush they had 
many opportunities of noting the located claims 
which were being worked, and they also had the 
advantage of being present when panning was 
being done by the owners to ascertain the v^lue 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 157 

of the various claims. We expressed the opinion 
then that El Dorado would prove to be the richer 
creek, and our surmises have proved to be cor- 
rect. 

''How did we arrive at this result? We care- 
fully kept a record of the panning results on 
both creeks, and the average at that time was as 
follows: On El Dorado Creek No. 3, 13; No. 4, 
$4.60; No. 5, $8.50; No 6 as high as $153; No. 
7, about the average of No. 6; No. 8 as high as 
$60; from No. 8 to No. 16, from $2.50 to $10 on 
an average, although $216 was washed out of one 
pan on the latter claim. From No. 16 to No. 37 
all the claims were regarded as good, but not 
enough panning had been done to justify us in 
forming any opinion of the average value. Upon 
No. 37 a nugget worth $360 of irregular shape 
was found. From No. 37 to rim rock there had 
not been sufficient prospecting done, but the 
opinion then was that all the claims were good. 

"Even as far back as last March the best de- 
veloped claim in the country was that of Clarence 
Berry, No, 6 on El Dorado, in which he then 
owned a half-interest. He also owned one-third 
interest in Nos. 4 and 5. He emploj'-ed twelve 
men all the winter taking out pay dirt and de- 
positing it upon the dump. 

"To give an idea of the richness of the claim 
we cannot do better than say that Berry paid his 



158 Klondike. 

men $1.25 an hour until some one offered more, 
and that every night he melted ice in his cabin 
and panned out sufficient gold from the frozen 
dirt to pay the wages of his men. Berry knew 
where there was very rich ground on his claim, 
and he very often panned out from $10 to $50 to 
the pan, and on one occasion he panned $125. 
When requiring money it was only necessary for 
the owner of the claim to take out some of his 
rich ground and wash it. 

"Every man who came here from the Yukon 
last winter after telling his story of the new dig- 
ings invariably had something to say of claim 
No. 6, so that it has probably been advertised 
better than any other mine on the Klondike. 
It is, therefore, with much satisfaction that we 
publish the result of the clean-up. We have had 
all kinds of estimates given us of the amount 
which Berry's dump would produce, and the 
highest we heard was $100,000, so that in an- 
nouncing the result as $140,000 it goes to show 
what a rich country has been discovered, and 
furthermore it is substantial and satisfactory 
proof of the care with which the news from the 
diggings has been prepared for publication. 

^'We gave figures in the winter which showed 
that the lower portion of Bonanza Creek aver- 
aged all the way from $10 to 150 to the pan, up 
to No. 56 below Discovery. From Discovery, to 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 159 



No. 13 above the value was from 15 to 
Then from there to No. 53 the average is from 
$10 to 50 cents. From this point up the creek 
there had not been enough prospecting done to 
base any average upon. We hope soon to be in 
a position to give the results from various claims 
on Bonanza which may be depended upon, and 
we can then compare them with the panning 
average of the early summer as given above. 

"We know that Rhodes has taken out probably 
$150,000 from his claim, but then it was well 
developed, and we are expecting big results from 
there, but we want to get the information from 
a number of claims so as to get a right idea of 
the general value of the creek, and prove the 
assertion so often made of its continued richness 
from end to end. One thing has been learned in 
the Klondike, and that is that production is pro- 
portionate to development. We have found that 
the yield of gold follows the work done on a 
claim. When Rhodes made such a good showing 
at the start it encouraged others to open up their 
claims, and quite a number changed hands on 
Bonanza Creek and the owners left there for the 
coast to obtain sufficient supplies to last them 
for a long period. Then came the big returns 
from No. 6 on El Dorado, and the great excite- 
ment was transferred to that creek, and there 
were fewer absentee owners, and in consequence 



160 Klondike. 

more work was done, the evidences of which we 
have had ample demonstration of in the big 
sacks of gold which have been washed out. 

^'The largest results attract the most attention, 
therefore most of the stories which have reached 
the coast cluster about the few big producers, 
and of the sales made only those involving large 
sums are spoken of. There are a great many 
smaller sums than the ones spoken of which have 
been taken from El Dorado. But properties 
which in any other country on the face of the 
earth would attract universal attention are al- 
most lost sight of in the Klondike, because they 
have only yielded $10,000, $15,000 and 120,000. 
Next fall these same claims will be so far de- 
veloped as to hold their own with the rest of the 
creek. Berry had a good start, and after reach- 
ing bed rock could command sufl&cient funds to 
hire men and pay them wages equal to the pro- 
duction of an ordinary placer mine. We have 
no particular reason to assume that other claims 
will prove less productive than his when they 
have had the same amount of labor expended 
upon them. 

"Several men from Seattle went in with the first 
party this spring, and they are interested on 
Bonanza Creek and intend to prosecute work 
with all the men they can profitably employ. 

"If a comparatively few men in the limited time 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. IGl 

at their disposal are able to produce a million 
dollars from dirt raised to the surface during the 
winter months with practically no preparation at 
all, what will be the result when all the claims 
are being vigorously developed with plenty of 
labor to draw from? This is a very important 
question, and is one fraught with considerable 
interest to the great number of men now on their 
way to the mines. If we think a moment that 
there has not been a barren claim yet on either 
of the creeks the possibilities of the future are 
tremendous. Let us make this a little clearer. 
The panning in the winter gave promise of ex- 
ceedingly rich results. These rich results have 
been attained in every instance where the claim 
has been worked. We have therefore the right 
to assume that similar results will rcAvard the 
efforts of the owners of other claims on the same 
creeks which have been so productive this season. 
The only evidence one had of the probable value 
of a claim was the amount of gold obtained in a 
single pan. Suppose we follow this idea out for 
a moment. 

*'No. 6 on El Dorado Creek panned out as high 
as $153 to the pan last winter before work was 
done on it. This is the claim which produced 
$140,000 from the winter dump. Now the No. 
7, next to it, yielded precisely the same results 
to the pan. Why will not No. 7, when it is 



162 Klondike. 

opened up as much as No. 6 has been, give the 
same results? Then again the next claim. No. 
8, panned out as high as $60 to the pan. The 
same argument applies to the third. The aver- 
age of the panning from No. 8 to No. 16 is from 
$2.50 to $10 to the pan. This would make any 
of these claims from No. 7 to No. 16 produce as 
much gold as No. 6 did, with the same amount 
of labor expended on them. "What would this 
mean? As a simple question of mathematics it 
would mean several million dollars alone for 
these few claims. This takes no account of 
claims No. 17 to No. 37, all of which are re- 
ported to be rich; but little work has been done 
upon them so far. 

"When all the claims are in working order and 
producing gold in proportion to their develop- 
ment we shall see a state of things at the Klon- 
dike unprecedented in the world's history. The 
man who took $90,000 from 45 feet of his ground 
last winter, and has 450 feet yet left, and so far 
as he knows of the same average value, can, by 
putting enough men to work, clean up half a 
million next season. If this be true then there 
are others who have panned out from $5 to $40 
in prospecting who have every reason to think 
that their claims will yield in like manner. 

"We noticed as men went through here this 
spring that there were large numbers who expect 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 163 

to hire out, and thus obtain a stake so that they 
may in turn spend some time in prospecting with 
an equal chance of discovering something good 
for themselves. Their places will be taken by 
other arrivals and the work of securing the gold 
will go on, and much country will be examined 
by men who will be encouraged and stimulated 
by the success of others. A man who can afford 
to hire men and pay them $12 a day will get the 
advantage of a quick return. These diggings 
are essentially winter ones. Upon a claim of 
five hundred feet a large number of prospect 
holes can be sunk at the same time, and the pay 
dirt deposited on the dump, and next spring the 
owner of the claim will be in a position to realize 
enormous amounts of money from his property. 

"The Klondike diggings may be regarded as 
permanent to the extent of several million dol- 
lars, and we have no hesitation in recommending 
men with some means to go in and try their for- 
tunes in the gold-lined creeks of the far North, 
where endurance, perseverance, grit and a good 
outfit will be their best friends." 

Undoubtedly the most vivid account of the 
actual staking out of the Bonanza diggings has 
come from the pen of Mr. Wilbur F. Cornell, an 
old newspaper man. He wrote: "Soon after 
getting to this place it was rumored about the 
stores and saloons that a new gold field had been 



164 Klondike. 

discovered on a tributary of Klondike Eiver, 
about fifty-one miles up the Yukon from this 
place^ and in two or three days every boat was 
gone from Fort Cudahy and the town of Forty- 
Mile, and only enough people were left to watch 
the business houses, and police barracks, and a 
few who could not get boats. I have seen so 
many of these 'stampedes' that they do not ex- 
cite me, but as I had nothing better to do at the 
time, I got an assistant, as one person cannot 
take a boat up the rapid Yukon, piled tent, 
stove, and a month's provisions into my boat, and 
Eben and I started to see what and how much 
had been found. Nothing definite could be 
learned here, but it is human as well as animal 
nature to run with the herd, and the herd had 
gone pellmell to Klondike. Before I could pass 
Forty-Mile three more feverish individuals had 
persuaded me that their future in this world and 
perhaps in the next, depended upon their going 
with me; so they grasped the towline, and we 
are on the way. 

"Going up-stream with a boat on the Yukon is 
laborious, the curren t being too swft to permit 
of rowing or paddling, so we pole when possible 
and tow or trick when we can't pole. My three 
passengers, two of the mounted police force and 
a steamboat engineer who has quit the steamer 
Weare for the stampede, are none of them ex- 



A Manual /or Gold Seekers. 165 

perts in handling a boat by the peculiar method 
necessary on the Yukon, but as I have had sev- 
eral summers' experience we got along most of 
the time in cold drizzling rain, making camp 
where we can when night comes, but always on 
some gravelly bank, as the moss on level ground 
is as wet as the river itself. Before we reach 
the Klondike boats are passing downloaded with 
men who have been to the diggings. How gayly 
they shoot by us, with a five-mile current rush- 
ing them along, and how my friends at the tow- 
line, with shins blistered from sliding and stum- 
bling over the rocks on the banks do envy them! 

'' 'Hurry along boys; it's a big thing!' 'Take 
it easy; there'll be claims there for you next 
summer!' 'Five dollars to the pan on Dis- 
covery claim!' 'That you Cornell? Get a 
claim next me if you can; it's all right!' 'Yes, 
I've located; will sell for $100!' 'Hello, Wil- 
bur; don't let anything stop you; take enough 
grub over the mountain to last a few days and 
look around a little; it is going to beat Florence!' 

"Thus they shout as they fly by, but the last 
remark was by a man who was with me at Flor- 
ence, Idaho, in '62, and has been in all the good 
mining camps of the Pacific coast, and I would 
take his judgment on a mine as I would take 
twenty-dollar pieces; so I tell my companions 
th»*- it is no wild-goose chase T"- we on, and we 



166 Klondike, 

pull and pole with renewed energy, reaching the 
native village at the mouth of Klondike Eiver 
the third evening. We are too tired and foot- 
sore to attempt the mountain that night, so we 
put up the tent and listen to the varying and ex- 
ceedingly contradicting opinions of those who 
are camped in the vicinity and have been over 
the trail. Most of them are going back, and 
have come here for more provisions, which they 
left in the natives houses' and caches; some have 
to go to Forty-Mile Fork, and there is the usual 
proportion of those who promise themselves they 
will never see Bonanza Creek again and don't 
want a claim there. Then we see who is in the 
boats arriving every hour or of tener from Stu- 
art Eiver, from Sixty-Mile River, from Indian 
Creek, and from all over the Yukon Valley, and 
I wonder how they can have heard of the dis- 
covery, but find in most cases that natives have 
been sent for them by friends here. 

''Then comes a Comanche yell from the brow of 
the first rise of the mountain over which the 
trail comes from Bonanza, and more yells until 
a stranger here would think we were about to be 
attacked by a whole nation of savages, and we 
look up through the bushes and see the rocks 
leaping down the steep declivity, and men are 
rolling and sliding along with them, and the 
yells increase, and rocks and men come faster. 



A Ma/nual for Gold Seekers. 167 

until they reach the bottom 50 yards away. We 
shout toOj and somebody propounds a question 
which the Comauches hear: 'Ten dollars to the 
pan, right in the bank of the creek on No. 11.' 
'Above or below?' 'Oh, below, of course; no- 
body has panned any above.' 

"You must be told that when a discovery is 
made on a creek that claim is called 'Discovery 
claim,' the adjoining claim above is 'No. 1 
above,' and the first down stream is 'No. 1 be- 
low,' and the claims are numbered successively 
both ways so far as locations are made. The 
'Comanches' are buttonholed to a fire, and the 
coffee pot is placed where it will boil quickly, 
frying pans are soon doing their duty, and the 
Comanches are talked to and at till they are 
pumped dry of information, and coffee is ready, 
and I know by the ferocity with which they at- 
tack the solid food and pour down the coal-black 
coffee that the trip to Bonanza Creek is not a 
picnic — though they say it's fairly good. 

"Soon I see a few men slipping away from the 
small crowd and in a few minutes we hear the 
stones on the side of the mountain sliding again, 
and a man with a pack on his back is clambering 
upward, clinging to the small trees and bushes, 
all the time going but very slowly; and another 
person soon follows, and others follow in turn. 
It is getting dark, and I know we are too tireo* 



168 Klondike. 

to go far, and would have to stop somewhere in 
the mountain, without water, and though we 
would like to go, I am satisfied we would regret it 
the next day as we need rest badly and some of us 
are not as strong as those young Comanches who 
have come back. So we get into the tent and 
blankets and sleep until a boat's bottom grinds 
on the gravelly beach, and more men crawl up 
the bank, cook supper, and either start over the 
trail or go to sleep. And we try to sleep again 
and I am just about unconscious of trouble when 
I hear something moving in the tent, and I know 
what it is, for I have learned a few things along 
the banks of the Yukon from experience, and I 
can't be mistaken in the peculiarly gentle sound 
of a pan being licked. I seize the handle of a 
hatchet placed there for the purpose and I hurl 
that hatchet at the dog, and miss him, of course 
— who ever did hit an Indian dog with anything 
but a bullet? — and I postpone sewing up the hole 
in the tent the hatchet made, and sleep again 
until more boats thump the gravel on the shore, 
or more Comanche yells come from the hills; 
and so it is all night long. 

"Daylight, and we have had breakfast and have 
fixed up small packs, and are making the stones 
rattle and are trying to pull up the small trees 
on the side hill. 1 have been doing this sort of 
thing all summer, and neither lungs nor muscle 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 169 

are much exercised by the climb, but I soon find 
that all are not like me. Half a mile or less and 
the trail is not so steep. It is through thick 
woods, spruce and balm (cottonwood, the name 
here) and another of the poplar family, quaking 
aspen, and the ground is covered with moss — 
the green mosses of the lowlands with more or 
less reindeer moss and an occasional patch of 
Iceland moss, lycopodiums, and so many other 
kinds of mosses and plants that I won't try to 
remember them; besides there are the huckle- 
berry and cranberry bushes. 

"Then we came to a swamp, and the trail is 
more than ankle deep with water, but one can- 
not walk through these places out of the trail, so 
we plod through, and finally come to dry, solid 
ground for a mile or more, and some of us are 
getting very thirsty (the swamp water is not fit 
to drink), and we go up and up, hoping to get 
to a spring we have been told we would find 
before reaching the summit. A few cranberries 
keep me from getting thirsty, but the rest are 
differently constituted, I suppose. Occasionally 
a grouse flutters from the berry patches and 
alights in the low trees. He does not seem to 
understand this stampede business, and is dis- 
posed to remonstrate against being thus dis- 
turbed while picking the berries which nobody 
else wants. 



170 Klondike. 

"We do live to get to the small spring of water 
and we take a rest. Some men are coming down 
the trail; others come up the trail. One of the 
down-trail men takes an up-trail man to one side 
and whispers advice. All I can hear is the 
word 'pup.' In Yukon vernacular *pup' means 
gulch. Every creek has its 'pup/ and if one 
of those 'pups' is thought worthy of being 
given a name afterward, it becomes sufficiently 
advanced to have pups also. So I conclude that 
somebody has found gold in one of these pups, 
but I am in woeful ignorance as to which par- 
ticular pup is being alluded to. 

"The sergeant 'Canadian mounted police/ 
though they haven't a horse within a thousand 
miles of here, gives his blankets to the other 
M.P., and we trot along. The engineer and the 
other M.P. begin a race for the summit. About 
every quarter of a mile we meet men, and they 
tell of rich prospects being found in different 
places along the creek; some of them think it is 
only in spots and on the rim rock; others are sure 
the creek is good from source to mouth; and now 
and then one will tell us it is all fraud, and the 
men who claim to have got big pans never got 
them. These pessimistic prospectors always look 
weary and fagged out, and I know they have had 
no breakfast, and perhaps no supper last night, 
and probably didn't sleep much. Strange what 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. lYl 

an effect the want of a little food will have upon 
one's opinion npon any subject! 

"At length we reached the summit. The en- 
gineer and the M.P. are not in sight. We lie 
down and breathe a little. The trees have be- 
come fewer as we have climbed upward, and we 
can see a part of the world around us. Oh, what 
a picture in the northeast, and what a beautiful 
foreground the Klondike Valley makes! We 
look up the valley and can see the windings of 
the silvery thread of water for fifty miles, and 
where it comes out of a gateway in the mountains 
fuly 1,000 feet in depth." 

An old Montana miner, Mr. Frank Aldrich, 
now at the diggings, has written: 

"On June 10 we landed at Klondike. Here 
the wildest of gold excitements is just starting. 
The riches of California and Australia are not in 
it. I saw $100,000 laying on a wagon sheet in 
one miner's cabin, besides every pot and pan 
in the house not in use for cooking purposes was 
full of gold. On Bonanza Creek, Eed McConnell 
and Jim Tweed, old Bentonites, are worth $100,- 
000 each, and I could name fifty old-time friends 
that are strictly 'in the swim.' I purchased a 
mule for $400 and was offered $600 in one hour 
after. I have just located a claim on Dominion 
Creek, and am now busy packing supplies back 
to prospect it seventy miles from here. Bacon 



1Y2 Klondike. 

is selling at seventy-five cents a pound and is 
hard to get; and everything in proportion is cor- 
respondingly as high. 

"Saloons rnn wide open here. Drinks fifty 
cents; whisky by gallon^ 120 to 130. I saw one 
poker game yesterday with $50,000 on the table. 
Bonanza kings with long buckskin sacks were 
crowding to get up to the bar to treat; got so 
much money they didn't know what to do with 
it. In all, it is the richest mining camp ever 
known in the history of the world; and next year 
it will be better. The steamer P. B. Weare went 
out of here the day before yesterday so heavily 
laden with gold dust in her ojBBce that extra 
props were put from the deck to the cabin, di- 
rectly under the office. You and your friends 
will smile when you read this, but it is the truth, 
nevertheless, and you can come and see for your- 
self." 

One of the largest nuggets so far received from 
the Yukon is one four inches long, weighing 
fourteen ounces, and valued at $250. It was 
sent to the North American Transportation 
Company and has been presented to the Field 
Columbian Museum. 

Inspector Strickland, of the Northwest Mounted 
Police, who has spent the past two years on the 
Yukon, states: 

"There has been no exaggeration. I have 




Nugget Weighing Fourteen Ounces and Valued at $250. — 
Page 172. 



A Manvul for Gold Seekers. 1Y3 

seen nothing in newspapers in regard to the rich- 
ness of the field that is not true. Great strikes 
have been made, but the amount of gold is un- 
limited. There are hundreds of creeks rich in 
gold-bearing placers never yet entered by pros- 
pectors. Of course all the claims in the creeks 
now opened are taken up, but those are only be- 
ginnings, I believe, of much greater finds. Some 
men I know, who struck paying streaks, took 
out as much as $200,000. Others averaged be- 
tween $100,000 and $200,000, while others again 
only range from $5,000 to $20,000." 

"No imagination can conceive of the wealth 
in the Klondike and neighboring districts," said 
one lucky miner as he pulled a buckskin bag 
from one of his pockets and proceeded to edify 
his listeners with a magnificent display from one 
of his thirteen placer claims. ''This is a sample 
of the kind of stuS we get when at the close of 
the day's work we wash out a bucket of dirt in 
order to pay the men their wages. The usual 
method is to pay for the day's operation out of 
a single bucketful of dirt. The dirt is washed out 
in the cabin and the wages, which are $15 a day, 
are weighed on the scales. Gold nuggets and 
gold dust is all the money we know anything 
about in the diggings. Every man carries a pair 
of scales, and $10 in dust is the day's salary of a 
common laborer. A miner who may be detailed 



174: KlondiJce. 

to cut wood receives the same wages as though 
he were in the bottom of the pit. I have been 
in Alaska off and on for fifteen years. Part of 
the time I was engaged in mining, and part of 
the time as a merchant. I know a good deal 
about the country, its climate and its peculiari- 
ties, and the chances which are offered to ener- 
getic men. My advice is for outsiders to stay 
away until next spring, and then will be the 
time to make a rush for a fortune. The excite- 
ment next summer will be much greater than it 
is to day, and the difficulty in procuring miners 
will be more felt than at the present time. I 
would not be surprised if they will be paying 
$25 a day for good miners, for everybody will be 
wild over prospecting. The day before I left 
the camp there were one hundred claims staked 
out on the banks of the river. Somebody went 
out on the bank and panned a pan of loose gravel 
at the surface. He found that it carried $3.50 
in gold, and the camp went wild." 

In locating claims there was no attempt made 
to select the ground on the Klondike. The first 
man took No. 1 and the next man No. 2, and so 
on until the creek from where it enters the 
Klondike to its source in the mountains was 
taken up. Then the attention of the newcomers 
was directed to El Dorado Creek, which empties 
into Bonanza Creek a few miles from where the 
latter joins the Klondike Eiver. 



A Manual /or Gold Seehers. 1^5 

Here new surprises were met with. The first 
man who located a claim panned out $5, and 
stayed right where he was, and now he counts his 
fortune by tens of thousands. With him were 
others, and one after the other the claims were 
staked out until not one remained from one end of 
the creek to the other. At its upper end there are 
two forks, and all the ground from rim rock to 
rim rock on both these forks was likewise located. 
We hear of some old-timer from California who 
accompanied a party of miners who were locat- 
ing claims as they passed up the creek, who was 
constantly looking for favorable indications of 
gold before deciding to exercise his right to 
acquire a claim. He saw nothing to attract him 
until the whole creek was pre-empted, and as 
he returned he found that ground which he had 
discarded as being useless had changed hands 
for thousands of dollars, and not a pick had been 
used — ground which since then has produced 
$100,000. 

El Dorado has proved to be richer than 
Bonanza — that is, more gold has been taken from 
it. This may be accounted for from the fact 
that a large number of men who located on El 
Dorado went to work at once last fall, put down 
prospect holes, and after reaching bed rock 
drifted through the frozen ground and raised 
the pay dirt to the surface. This dump, as it is 



176 Klondike. 

called, was washed out this spring, and the re- 
sults are something marvelous. 

A man who had a rich claim would sink a hole 
and take sample pans from it as he went down, 
and by so doing he could form a very correct 
estimate of what he was doing. When he com- 
menced to drift on bedrock this process was re- 
peated, so that he always followed up the richest 
ground. 

Clarence Berry's claim on El Dorado has been 
often spoken about. He placed a value of $100,- 
000 on his dump. What are the actual figures? 
To show the man's faith in his own property he 
proceeded to buy out his partners before the 
dump was washed out. To one of them he paid 
860,000, and to another 135,000. Then, when 
the river melted, he washed the gold from the 
dump and realized $140,000. The result of this 
transaction was that he cleared $50,000 for a few 
months' work in the winter, and yet owns one of 
the most valuable mines in the district. When 
washing out the dump it is said that the gold 
was recovered at the rate of one ounce to the 
shovel. In other words, each man took out 
seventeen dollars a minute as he worked. It 
took barely a week to clean up all the gold from 
the winter's accumulation of pay dirt. 

Archie McDonald worked forty-five feet of his 
claim up aii<J down the creek, with the result 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 177 

that his sacks now contain $90,000 in gold dust. 
His claim is five hundred feet long; its value is 
$1,000,000, if the ground is all of the same aver- 
age value. 

The news of the great strike on the Klon- 
dike reached Circle City early in September. 
Cobb, one of the returned miners, hurried up 
the Yukon, traveling day and night, carrying 
only the barest necessities in the way of supplies. 
He reached the mouth of Bonanza Creek, five 
miles above Dawson City, only to find that the 
best locations had been filed on. His last sup- 
plies were almost gone, and there was little or no 
provisions in the country. In his emergency, 
Cobb met Frank Phiscator, the Indian farmer, 
who came back on the Portland with $96,000. 
Phiscator had just reached the new diggings, 
and was looking for a partner. The two struck 
up a friendship. Phiscator agreed to prospect 
up the Klondike from the mouth of the Bonanza, 
while Cobb followed the latter stream to its con- 
fines with the El Dorado, nine miles up. Each 
agreed to share with the other. A week after 
they separated Cobb had located a claim on El 
Dorado, and was thereby entitled by right of dis- 
covery to twice the amount of ground usually 
alloted. He hurried down to the mouth of the 
creek and found Piscator returning from a fruit- 
less search of gold. He told Phiscator of his 
find, and the two me» iiurried to Cobb's claim. 



ITS Klondike. 

Phiscator located alongside of Cobb. The 
two men began work at once, the pans running 
as high as $10 on the surface. They had struck 
it rich. Laying down his shovel after the second 
day's prospecting Cobb said: "Frank, this creek 
is studded with gold from here to headwaters. 
We will call it El Dorado," and so it has been 
known from that time on. 

Asked as to the richness of the Klondike coun- 
try, Mr. Ladue, the king of Dawson City, said: 
"I have not seen any late reports, but it is pretty 
hard to exaggerate it. Individuals may have ex- 
aggerated as to the amounts they have taken 
out, but as to the wealth of the country the 
reports are generally correct. I believe the 
largest amount taken out by one person was 
$81,000 brought out by Frank Phiscator, of 
Washington. About $2,000,000 have come out, 
and at that ratio it is fair to assume that $15,- 
000,000 will be produced by the same mines dur- 
ing the winter. 

"The extent of the craze and quest for 
riches,'^ continued Mr. Ladue, "may be judged 
from the fact that gold was discovered in Septem- 
ber last, and that already 800 claims are staked 
within a radius of twenty miles of Dawson City. 
There is no jumping of claims. Three months' 
work each year is required to hold a claim. 
Failing in this the land reverts to the >)::overn- 



A Manual fov Gold Seekers. 179 

ment. The laws of Canada are stringent in such 
matters, and severe penalties are imposed for 
jumping or other interference with the rights of 
claimants. Each claim is 500 feet along the creek 
and extending to the foothills on either side." 

Asked if he was correctly quoted as advising 
people not to go in until spring Mr. Ladue said: 
"Yes, it is too late to go in now. The gold fields 
are located 1,700 miles up the Yukon River. If 
many people go in it will be impossible to get 
provisions there in sufficient quantities. Next 
spring will be a better time to go than now. 
Nothing will be lost by the delay. 

*'The truth of the riches of this country has 
not been half told and no one can exaggerate 
the probable wealth to be found in this far-off 
country." 

Ladue is forty-three years old. He left Mon- 
tana in 1882, going to the Black Hills. Eight 
years ago he went to Alaska, where he prospected 
for a time; after which he engaged in business. 
Last September he removed his store to the 
present site of Dawson City. 

In truth the riches of the Klondike seem al- 
most fabulous. One miner says: "A panful of 
sand can be washed out in from three to twelve 
minutes, and $2,000 was panned out from six 
pans of sand." 

Another man has realized twelve ounces to the 



180 Klondike. 

pan — sometimes; but sometimes will do, if you 
count that up at $17 to the ounce. 

"When we first heard reports to the effect that 
$25 to the pan was often found it was thought 
wonderful; but from later accounts $25 to the 
pan isn't in it now. Almost every man up there 
wants a piece of this ground for himself, turn- 
ing up his nose at the idea of working for wages, 
when the said wages are not a cent less than 
$1.50 per hour. One man has several men work- 
ing for him at this rate, eight or ten hours daily; 
when the day is done he takes a panful of dirt, 
washes it out, and pays his men. 

Dominion Surveyor Ogilvie says that rich fields 
in the Forty-Mile district, such as Miller, Gla- 
cier, and Chicken Creeks have been practically 
abandoned for the Klondike. Men cannot be 
got to work for love or money, and the standard 
of wages is $1.50 an hour, and he repeats that 
some of the claims are so rich ^that every night a 
few pans of dirt is sufficient to pay all the hired 
help. 

William Stanley, of Seattle, was a pauper eight- 
een months ago; now he is worth, perhaps, $2,- 
000,000. This is his story. "I went to Yukon 
as a last resort. I was getting old and had no 
money, and I knew that I would never get any 
wealth unless I took it out of the ground. It 
was a year ago last March that I left Seattle. I 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 181 

made for the Yukon. I had never been there 
before. I knew nothing of mining and nothing 
of the hardships of the country, and in fact was 
as great a 'greeny' as ever. set foot in the gold 
country of the Northwest. My son Samuel went 
with me. He was as ignorant as his father. 

"While we were on the steamship Alki, which 
took us to Dyea, we met two young men, Charles 
and George Worden. They were residents of 
Sackett's Harbor, New York, and had come west 
in search of gold. We became very intimate. 
They knew little if anything of the country, and 
one day in conversation one of us suggested that 
we form a company and do our work on the syn- 
dicate plan, each man to share and share alike. 
We wandered through the Yukon district for 
several months, and were getting discouraged 
because there seemed to be nothing for us. We 
met other men who were getting rich, but we 
grew poorer as the days came and went. Once 
we had about concluded to go back. It was in 
the latter part of last September that we be- 
friended a man who gave us a tip as to the riches 
of the Klondike. We were willing to believe 
anything and made for the Klondike at once. 
At that time we were en route for Forty-Mile 
Creek. We were then at Sixty-Mile. 

"The first thing we did when we reached the 
Klondike was to spend a little time at the mouth 



182 Klondike. 

of the stream. We were there just twenty-four 
hours when the steamer Ellis arrived with 150 
excited miners aboard. They had just heard 
the good news, and on their arrival they made a 
rush for the richest spots on Bonanza and El 
Dorado Creeks. 

"We went to El Dorado Creek and made loca- 
tions on what were called Claims 25, 26, 53, 
and 54. I think it was in October that we made 
our locations. We worked Claims 25 and 26. 
and were very soon satisfied that we had a fine 
thing and went to work to make preparations for 
a long winter of experience and hardships. We 
got all we wanted before spring. Every man 
put., in his time sinking prospect holes in the 
gulch. 

"I tell the simple truth when I say that within 
three months we took from the two claims the 
sum of $112,000. A remarkable thing about our 
findings is that in taking this enormous sum, we 
did not drift up and down stream, nor did we 
cross-cut the pay streaks. Of course we may be 
wrong, but this is the way we are figuring, and 
we are so certain that what we say is true that 
we would not sell out for a million. In our 
judgment, based on close figuring, there are in 
the two claims we worked, and claims No. 53 and 
54, $1,000 to the lineal foot. I say that in four 
claims we have at the very least $2,000,000 
which can be taken out without any great work. 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 183 

''I believe there is gold in almost every creek 
in Alaska. Certainly on the Klondike the claims 
are not spotted. One seems to be as good as 
another. It's gold, gold, gold, all over. It's 
yards wide and yards deep. I say so because I 
have been there and have the gold to show for 
it. All yon have to do is to run a hole down, 
and there you find plenty of gold dust. I would 
say that our claims on the El Dorado claims will 
average $3, some go as high as $150, and believe 
me when I tell you that in five pans I have 
taken out as high as $750. I did not pick the 
pans, but simply put them against my breast and 
scooped the dirt off the bedrock. 

"Of course the majority of those on the Klon- 
dike have done much figuring as to the amount 
of gold the Klondike will yield. Many times we 
fellows figured on the prospects of the El 
Dorado. I would not hesitate much about 
guaranteeing 121,000,000, and should not be sur- 
prised a bit if 125,000,000, or even $30,000,000, 
was taken out. Some people will tell you that 
the Klondike is a marvel and that there will 
never be a discovery in Alaska which will com- 
pare with it. I think that bhere will be a num- 
ber of new creeks discovered that will make won- 
derful yields. Why, Bear Gulch is just like El 
Dorado. Bear Gulch has a double bedrock. 
The bedrocks are three feet apart. In the lower 



184: Klondike. 

bed the gold is as dark as a black cat, and in the 
upper bed the gold is as bright as any you ever 
saw. We own No. 10 claim below Discovery 
on Bear Gulch, and also Nos. 20 and 21 on Last 
Chance Gulch above Discovery. We prospected 
for three miles on Last Chance Gulch, and could 
not tell the best place to locate the Discovery 
claim. The man making a discovery of the 
creek is entitled by law to stake a claim and take 
an adjoining one, or in other words two claims; 
so you see he wants to get in a good location on 
the creek or gulch. Hunker Gulch is highly 
looked to. I think it will prove another great 
district, and some good strikes have also been 
made on Dominion Creek. Indian Creek is also 
becoming famous. 

"What are we doing with all the money we 
take out? Well, we paid 145,000 spot cash for 
a half -interest in Claim 32, El Dorado. We also 
advanced 15,000 each to four parties on El 
Dorado Creek, taking a mortgage on their claim, 
so you see we are well secured. No, I do not 
want any better security for my money than El 
Dorado claims, thank you. I only wish I had a 
mortgage on the whole creek. 

"We had a great deal of trouble in securing 
labor in prospecting our properties. Old miners 
would not work for any price. We could occa- 
sionally rope in a greeniiorn and get him to work 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 185 

for a few days at $15 a day. Six or eight miners 
worked on shares for us about six weeks, and 
when we settled it developed that they had 
earned in that length of time 15,300 each. That 
was pretty good pay, wasn't it? We paid one 
old miner $12 for three hours' work, and offered to 
continue him at that rate, but he would not have 
it, and he went out to hunt a claim of his own. 
My son Samuel and Charles Worden are in 
charge of our interests in Alaska." 

The latest estimate of the probable output of 
gold in the Klondike comes from B. H. Shaw, a 
well-known insurance man, who left Seattle for 
the Klondike on March 15, reaching Dawson 
City two and a half months later. In a letter 
he says that a conservative estimate of the prod- 
uct of the camp during the next two years is 
$50,000,000. Shaw is not an enthusiast, and be- 
sides he has had twenty years of experience in 
operating placer mines in California. This is 
how Shaw described Dawson on June 18: 
''There is no night here now. It is light as mid- 
day for twenty-four hours, and not so warm but 
that it's comfortable working out of doors. This 
gold strike is without doubt the greatest on the 
American continent, or in the world. Some of 
the pay streaks are nearly all gold. One thou- 
sand dollars to the pan is not uncommon, and as 
high as 100 ounces to the pan have been taken 



186 Klondike. 

out. As to the extent of the district it has 
not been prospected suflSciently to ascertain 
this fact. The people who came in here on the 
rush settled down on a half-dozen streams, all 
within an area of not more than 150 square miles, 
and the biggest paying streams were staked from 
mouth to source. They began taking out the 
pure gold at once, and little prospecting has 
since been done outside this locality. No one 
need fear all the good claims will be taken. 
There are thousands of miles square that have 
yet to be prospected. 

''The Klondike joins the Yukon from the east a 
few miles above the site of Fort Keliance, about 
fifty miles above Dawson City. The discovery 
of gold in the branches of this stream was due to 
the reports of Indians. A white man named J. 
A. Carmack, who worked in 1887, was the first to 
hear the rumor and locate a claim in the lowest 
branch, which was named by the miners Bonanza 
Creek. Carmack reached his claim in August. 
He had to cut some logs in order to get a few 
pounds of provisions to enable him to begin work 
on his claim. He returned with a few weeks* 
provision for himself, wife and brother-in-law, in 
the latter part of August, and immediately set 
about working his claim. The gravel he had to 
carry in a box on his back from 30 to 100 feet. 
Notwithstanding this, three men working very 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 187 

irregularly washed out $14,200 in eight days, 
and Carmack asserts that if he had had proper 
facilities he could have washed out the gold in 
two days. The branch of the Bonanza Creek 
called El Dorado has developed magnificently. 
Another tributary, Tilly Creek, has been worked 
with profit. There are 170 claims staked out in 
the main creek and the branches are thought to 
be good for as any more. The location aggre- 
gates 350 claims, which will require over a thou- 
sand men to work properly. 

A few miles further up. Bear Creek enters the 
Klondike. It has been prospected and claims 
located. About twelve miles above the mouth of 
Bear Creek, Gold Bottom Creek joins Klondike. 
In a branch called Hunker Creek very rich ground 
has been found. On Gold Bottom Creek and its 
branches there will probably be two or three 
hundred claims. The Indians have reached an- 
other creek much further up, which they call 
"Too Much Gold" Creek in which the gold is 
said to be so plentiful that the miners say, "That 
you have to mix gravel with it to sluice it." Up 
to date nothing has been heard from this creek. 

"From all this we may think," reports Sur- 
veyor Ogilvie, "that we have here a district 
which will give 5,000 claims of 400 feet in length 
each. Now, 1,000 such claims will require at least 
3,000 men to work them properly, and as wages 



188 Klondike. 

are from $8 to $10 per day, we have every reason 
to assume that this particular territory will in a 
year or two contain 10,000 souls at least, for the 
news has gone out to the world, and an unprece- 
dented influx is anticipated next spring. And this 
is not all, for a large creek called Indian Creek 
joins the Yukon about midway between Klon- 
dike and Stuart Eiver. All along this creek good 
pay dirt may be found. All that has stood in 
the way of working it heretofore has been the 
scarcity of provisions owing to the diflBculty of 
getting them up there. Indian Creek is quite a 
stream, and it is probable that it will yield five 
or six hundred claims. 

"Further south lie the heads of several 
branches of Stuart Eiver, on which some pros- 
pecting has been done this summer and good 
indications found, but the want of provisions 
prevented development. Gold has been found 
in several of the streams joining Felly Eiver, and 
also along the Hootaliqua. In the line of these 
finds further south are the Cassiar gold fields 
in British Columbia, so the presumption is that 
we have in our territory along the easterly 
branches of the Yukon a gold-bearing belt of 
indefinite width, and upward of 300 miles long, 
exclusive of the British Columbia part of it. 

"Quartz of a good quality is reported in the 
hills around Bonanza Creek, but of this I shall 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 189 

be able to speak more fully after my proposed 
survey. It is pretty certain from information I 
have obtained from prospectors that all, or nearly 
all, of the northerly branch of White Eiver is on 
our side of the line, and copper is found on it. 
I have seen a specimen of silver ore said to have 
been picked up in a creek flowing into Bennett 
Lake, about fourteen miles from its mouth." 

Mr. John G. Whitlock sent a communication 
to the Examiner, that is vouched for by Mr. 
Tremain, of the Prospective Mining & Machinery 
Company of San Francisco, and Mr. Tremain is 
good authority for any statements he may choose 
to make. Full confidence may therefore be put 
in this report. He said: 

"You will no doubt be surprised to know that 
I am up here. I came a year ago this spring. I 
have a claim on El Dorado Creek, which runs into 
the Klondike River. I had a partner who came 
here with me and died last winter We had a 
mild winter, and it is not so cold as some say or 
think. I came down to Dawson to send this off, 
as the boat leaves in a few days. Now to busi- 
ness. I told you when I saw you last that I 
would turn up all right in time, and so I have. 
The gold mines here are wonderful — the biggest 
in the vv^orld. You would not believe half if I 
told you, but as there will be some gold going to 
Portland you will see for yourself. Now, I want 



190 Klondike. 

to ask you, can you come to this place at once? 
There was a claim next to mine that sold for 
$60,000 a few days ago. I will not send any gold 
out this time. I washed out in six days about 
$6,000, and I want to stay here another year or 
two. Provisions are going to be very scarce. 
If you will pack up and leave Portland at once, 
and bring up grub enough to last three of us 
one year, we will give you a half-interest in the 
biggest thing you ever struck. As you know, I 
am an old miner and know what I say. My new 
partner and I have each got $10,000 piled away in 
a sack. I am sure that in one year from now 
we three — you, my partner and I — can take out 
$500,000 and not try at all. My cabin is half a 
mile from the diggings, and many a time I pick 
up little nuggets that will weigh from an ounce to 
two ounces. I was on Cook Inlet a long time. 
We have been here only four months and have 
over $30,000 to show. How is that? Now, 
don't listen to any one. You come up here. It 
will take only $500 worth of provisions. Come by 
the way of Juneau; never mind the expense, it 
will beat living in Portland, anyway. 

"One man will take out $200,000 this trip for 
four months' work by himself. What we want 
is food and plenty of it. If you will come and 
take this offer we will let you in as we say. We 
have got the biggest thing of any of them. I 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 191 

have made the offer to two others, so come as 
quick as you can. I know you have the money 
and can come if you want to, still I cannot afford 
to wait. Business is business, you know. I 
shall expect you on the September boat at Daw- 
son, if you come that way, but if you come the 
other way we will wait a reasonable time. As 
for gold, we have more gold than bread. I may 
get a million out of my claim if my ground fig- 
ures out all right. I got $331 out of one pan- 
ful of dirt not over ten pounds weight. There 
were over thirty -nine nuggets in all." 

The total of the wealth acquired by the men 
directly heard from is as follows: 

Gold brought to San Francisco $649,850 

Claims held by men landing in Seattle 2,490,000 

Gold brought to other coast points 670,000 

Definite reports from Alaska 541,500 

Total $4,351,350 

These figures only relate to th^ diggings of 
a few score men, and there are nearly 5,000 
miners in the Klondike region. It has been esti- 
mated that the total amount of dust and nuggets 
obtained, without reference to the value of any 
of the holdings, was upward of 15,000,000. 

When the steamer Portland arrived at Seattle 
from the far North, gold in boxes, gold in 
blankets, fine gold and coarse gold, gold nuggets 



192 Klondike. 

and gold dust, the yellow treasure of the Klon- 
dike diggings, were carried ashore. A ton and a 
half of gold was a part of the load the steamer 
had brought from St. Michael, Alaska, and 
with the 3,000 pounds of gold were the several 
owners, sixty-eight miners, some with 145,000 
some with $10,000 some with $50,000, a few with 
1100,000 and over, but all with gold. When the 
steamer came to port the miners put their bags 
on their shoulders and walked down the gang- 
plank in the presence of a vast throng of Seattle 
people assembled to see the great pile of treasure 
from the rich fields of the far North. A miner 
with only $5,000 in his bag easily carried his for- 
tune. Twenty thousand dollars in two bags is a 
good load for any stalwart man, no matter if he 
has worked where the mercury falls to 60 de- 
grees below zero. Two men used all their 
strength in carrying a strapped blanket in which 
was about $50,000. The few with the big for- 
tunes $100,000, and over, had to hire help to get 
their precious possessions to a safe place of stor- 
age in Seattle. 

The sacks were of various kinds and sizes, and 
were principally made of buckskin and rawhide. 
When each package had been weighed and the 
clerks and assistants had cut them open, the 
spectators crowded around craning their necks to 
behold the gold which meant so much to the 
owners. 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 193 

After the gold dust reaches civilization it goes 
to the smelter. The room where the casting is 
done is always hot. The floor is covered with 
iron. Along one side are canopies of iron that 
look like the tojDs of bakers' ovens. These can- 
opies may be closed in front, and they rest on 
platforms of iron in which are countersunk the 
places for the reception of the crucibles. The 
fuel is gas and air under pressure. It attacks 
the vessel of clay in which the plumbago cruci- 
bles repose with a roar that can be heard a block 
away. A faint glow at first colors the clay pot, 
over which has been placed a cover, also of clay; 
then it becomes red and then white, while green- 
ish and blue flames play all around it. It is 
necessary to turn off the blast before the crucible 
can be looked into, so fierce is the heat. Down 
in the bottom of the white mass there is a line 
that indicates where the gold ends. When it 
has become a homogeneous compound, by an in- 
stinct born of experience the operator lifts the 
cover; then the blast is withdrawn. A pair of 
tongs lifts another cover from the crucible itself, 
and the mold is lifted into a pan standing on the 
iron platform. The tongs are brought into req- 
uisition, and the crucible is turned above the 
mold. A thick lip of red metal protrudes itself, 
and from under it, in a thin, white stream, runs 
the gold into the iron mold. A thick cloud of 



194 Klondike. 

vapor arises from the contact of the melted gold 
and the grease with which the mold has been 
smeared. By this time the clamps are loosened,- 
the brick has set and is lifted — a black and un- 
attractive rectangle — into a basin of water. It 
is soon cooled, and is scrubbed with a brush and 
soap. Then it looks not unlike so much brass. 
It is cleaned thoroughly, the dirt that may have 
been mixed with it is removed and the bar is 
weighed. That is all that there is to it. When 
the dust and nuggets are brought in they are 
simply turned into the crucible. The bars are 
all stamped in a dozen places on both sides, and 
the paying for it completes the deal. 



A Manual for Gold /Seekers. 195 



MINING METHODS. 

The following is a non-technical account of 
placer mining by a Chicago writer: 

"To give a homely but reasonably truthful 
illustration of placer mining, take a bushel of 
coarse sand mixed with gravel, a bushel of earth 
such as you see taken from a city excavation, a 
considerable proportion of clay, a little cement, 
a double handful of shot varying in size from 
the smallest birdshot to the largest buckshot, 
and imagine all this stuff to be mixed thoroughly 
together about the consistency of the soil on the 
shore of Lake Michigan, where the surf beats it 
into some sort of compactness. How would you 
go at it to extract the shot in the least possible 
time and at the last expenditure of labor? If 
you had heard of placer mining you would wash 
the earth away and save the shot. 

"All you need is a pan and plenty of water. 
Any sort of flat vessel, from a soup plate to a dish 
pan, will answer the purpose. The miner's pan 
is shaped like a cake pan with a flat bottom. 
When a prospector starts out he takes one made 



196 Klondihe. 

of tin or sheet iron. Gather with your hands, 
or a pick, or a shovel, a quart of this mixture 
just described and put it in the pan. Fill the 
pan nearly full of water. The earth will be sof- 
tened into mud. Add more water. Then tilt 
your pan over a very little and the soft mud will 
run out over the top of the pan. Continue the 
operation and in ten or fifteen minutes the earth 
has run off and all that you have left in the pan 
is the shot, which, being heavier than the earth, 
has sunk to the bottom, together with any 
gravel you may have thrown in originally. The 
work of separating the shot from the gravel 
after the earth has been washed away is very 



"Substitute particles of gold for your leaden 
globules, and the wildest kind of a mountain 
country for that to which you are accustomed, 
and you know just what the men in the Klondike 
region have been doing all winter and which has 
electrified the world. In the manner above de- 
scribed they have been washing the precious 
metal from earth found on a very rough, broken 
region larger than the city limits of Chicago. 
The miners had no other appliances but the 
pan and the water of the creeks flowing through 
the Klondike district until the spring time, when 
they set up sluices. What makes the authentic 
reports from Alaska so startling is the extraor- 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 197 

dinary yiel \ of gold to the pan. In the creek 
beds they have picked up chunks of solid gold, 
single nuggets worth $1,000 or more. Of 
course, these are exceptional even in the new 
El Dorado. 

*'In the language of miners, the earth from 
which gold is extracted is called dirt. Any earth 
which yields ten cents of gold to the pan is 
known as pay dirt; fifteen cents to the pan is 
good, and twenty cents is rich. A miner work- 
ing in dirt that runs six to ten cents to the pan 
earns from 12.50 to $3.50 a day, as he is able to 
wash about forty panfuls a day, the number de- 
pending on the character of the dirt. Some 
panfuls yield $100 in precious metal. The gold 
that remains in the pan after the dirt has been 
washed away is called dust. Some of it is fine 
as the finest sand, some the size of a pinhead, 
and some as large as a pea or the end of your 
little finger. Lumps are called nuggets. 

"The gold itself is the measure of the day's, 
or the month's, or the season's profit. An 
ounce of it is worth, if pure, $20. You can buy 
as much of anything you want for an ounce of 
dust as you can do for a $20 gold piece. All stores 
in mining districts are provided with gold scales, 
and the miner's gold is accepted as so much coin 
of the realm. The quantity of gold it takes to 
make a dollar is surprising to one not accus- 



198 Klondike. 

tomed to handling the metal. So much dust as 
you can hold on the largest blade of your pocket- 
knife is worth $5 to $7.50. When you consider 
that this small quantity is the yield of thirty or 
forty pans you can imagine how little bulk there 
is to the gold saved in one pan. A coined gold 
dollar is much smaller than a silver dime. 
Now, if a miner can save in one panful of dirt 
the tenth part of a gold dollar he is making fair 
wages. Some of the gold is in such fine particles 
that it floats and does not sink to the bottom 
like a shot. A considerable portion of such 
floating gold runs over the top of the pan and is 
lost. It is estimated that in the first placer min- 
ing in California about one-fourth of the gold 
was thus lost. To this day Chinamen are en- 
gaged in panning the refuse dirt of early miners, 
and they make from $1.25 to $3 a day in the 
operation. In Klondike, where so much of the 
gold is coarse, the miners lose very little of the 
precious metal by reason of its floating away. 
Placer mining is the simplest of all processes 
for getting gold out of the ground, and can be 
carried on only when there is an ample supply 
of water. All reports from Klondike agree that 
the best diggings are in the beds of creeks, and 
that the further down they get the richer the 
dirt, until bedrock is reached." 

A Canadian govarnment report says that the 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 199 

process of "placer" mining in Alaska is about as 
follows: "After clearing all the coarse gravel and 
stone off a patch of ground, the miner lifts a 
little of the finer gravel or sand in his pan, which 
is a broad, shallow dish, made of strong sheet 
iron; he then puts in water enough to fill the 
pan, and gives a few rapid whirls and shakes; 
this tends to bring the gold to the bottom on ac- 
count of its greater specific gravity. The dish is 
then shaken and held in such a way that the gravel 
and sand are gradually washed out; care being 
taken as the process nears completion to avoid 
letting out the finer and heavier parts that have 
settled to the bottom. Finally all that is left in 
the pan is whatever gold may have been in the 
dish and some black sand, which almost invariably 
accompanies it. 

"This black sand is nothing but pulverized 
magnetic iron ore. Should the gold thus found 
be fine, the contents of the pan are thrown into 
a barrel containing water, together with a pound 
or two of mercury. As soon as the gold comes in 
contact with the mercury it combines with it 
and forms an amalgam. The process is con- 
tinued until enough amalgam has been formed 
to pay for "roasting" or "firing." It is then 
squeezed through a buckskin bag, all the mer- 
cury that comes through the bag being put back 
into the barrel to serve again, and what remains 



200 Klondike. 

in the bag is placed in a retort, if the miner has 
one, or, if not, on a shovel, and heated until 
nearly all the mercury is vaporized. The gold 
then remains in a lump, with some mercury still 
held in combination with it. 

"This is called the 'pan' or 'hand' method, 
and is never, on account of its slowness and 
laboriousness, continued for any length of tim-e 
when it is possible to procure a *rocker,' or to 
make and work sluices. 

"A 'rocker' is simply a box about three feet 
long and two wide, made in two parts, the top 
being shallow, with a heavy sheet iron bottom, 
which is punched full of quarter-inch holes. 
The other part of the box is fitted with an in- 
clined shelf about midway in its depth, which is 
six or eight inches lower at its lower end than at 
its upper. Over this is placed a piece of heavy 
woolen blanket. The whole is then mounted 
on two rockers, much resembling those of an 
ordinary cradle, and when in use they are placed 
on two blocks of wood so that the whole may be 
readily rooked. After the miner has selected 
his claim, he looks for the most convenient place 
to set up his 'rocker,' which must be near a 
good supply of water. Then he proceeds to 
clear away all the stones and coarse gravel, 
gathering the finer gravel and sand in a heap 
near the 'rocker.' The shallow box is filled 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 201 

with this, and with one hand the miner rocks it, 
while with the other he ladles in the water. The 
finer matter* with the gold falls through the 
holes on the blanket, which checks its progress, 
and holds the fine particles of gold, while the 
sand and other matter pass over it to the bottom 
of the box, which is sloped so that what comes 
through is washed downward and finally out of 
the box. Across the bottom of the box are fixed 
thin slats, behind which some mercury is placed 
to catch any particles of gold which may escape 
the blanket. If the gold is nuggety, the large 
nuggets are found in the upper box, their weight 
detaining them until all the lighter stuff has 
passed through, and the smallest ones are held 
by a deeper slat at the outward end of the bot- 
tom of the box. The piece of blanket is, at in- 
tervals, taken out and rinsed into a barrel; if the 
gold is fine, mercury is placed at the bottom of 
the barrel, as already mentioned. 

"Sluicing is always employed when possible. It 
requires a good supply of water, with sufficient 
head or fall. The process is as follows: Planks 
are procured and formed into a box of suitable 
Avidth and depth. Slats are fixed across the bot- 
tom of the box at intervals, or shallow holes are 
bored in the bottom, in such order that no 
particle could run along the bottom in a straight 
line and escape without running over a hole. 



202 Klondike. 

Several of these boxes are then set up with a 
considerable slope, and are fitted into one 
another at the ends like a stovepipe. A stream 
of water is now directed into the upper end of 
the highest box. The gravel having been col- 
lected, as in the case of the rocker, it is shoveled 
into the upper box, and is washed downward by 
the strong current of water. The gold is de- 
tained by its weight, and is held by the slats or 
in the holes mentioned. If it is fine, mercury is 
placed behind the slats or in these holes to catch 
it. In this way about three times as much dirt 
can be washed as by the rocker, and conse- 
quently three times as much gold is secured in a 
given time. After the boxes are done with they 
are burned, and the ashes washed for the gold 
held in the wood. 

*^A great many of the miners spend their time 
in the summer prospecting, and in the winter 
resort to a method lately adopted and which is 
called 'burning.' They make fires on the sur- 
face, thus thawing the ground until the bedrock 
is reached; then drift and tunnel. The pay dirt is 
brought to the surface and heaped in a pile until 
spring, when water can be obtained. The sluice 
boxes are then set up and the dirt is washed out, 
thus enabling the miner to work advantageously 
and profitably the year around. This method 
has been found very satisfactory in places where 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 203 

the pay streak is at any great depth from the sur- 
face. In this way the complaint, which has been 
so commonly advanced by the miners and others, 
that in the Yukon several months in the year 
are lost in idleness is overcome. Winter usually 
sets in very soon after the middle of Sep- 
tember and continues until the beginning of 
June, and is very cold. The mercury frequently 
falls to 60 degrees below zero, but in the interior 
there is so little humidity in the air that the cold 
is more easily endured than on the coast. In the 
absence of thermometers, miners, it is said, leave 
their mercury out all night. When they tind it 
frozen in the morning they concluded that it is 
too cold to work and stay at home. The temper- 
ature runs to great extremes in summer as well 
as in the winter. It is quite a common thing for 
the thermometer to register 100 degrees in the 
shade." 

On the westerly side of the Yukon prospecting 
has been done on a creek a short distance above 
Ft. Selkirk, with a fair amount of success, and on a 
large creek some thirty or forty miles below that 
point fair prospects have been found. But, as 
before remarked, the difficulty of getting sup- 
plies there prevents any extensive or extended 
prospecting. 

The report continues: ''When it was fairly es- 
tablished that Bonanza Creek, a tributary of the 



204: Klondike. 

Klondike, was rich in gold, which took a few 
days, for Klondike had been prospected several 
times with no encouraging result, there was a 
great rush from all over the country adjacent to 
Forty-Mile. The town was almost deserted. 
Men who had been in a chronic state of drunk- 
enness for weeks were pitched into boats as bal- 
last and taken up to stake themselves a claim, 
and claims were staked by men for their friends 
who were not in the country at the time. All 
this gave rise to such conflict and confusion, 
there being no one present to take charge of 
matters, the agent being unable to go up and at- 
tend to the thing, and myself not yet knowing 
what to do, that the miners had a meeting and 
appointed one of themselves to measure off and 
stake the claims and record the owners' names 
in connection therewith, for which he got a fee 
of $2, it being of course understood that each 
claimholder would have to record his claim with 
the Dominion agent and pay his fee of $15. 

''As to the extent of mining districts they 
should, I think, be made large, and Section 21 
amended to enable a man who has located a 
claim which does not pay a reasonable return on 
outlay the first season after his claim has been 
prospected, to make a second location in the 
same locality or district, provided he can find 
one in it. The agent would have to determine 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 206 

whether or not he had expended the proper 
amount of labor on his claim to get reasonable 
returns; this, I know, opens the door for a lot of 
trouble, and maybe fraud, but, on the other 
hand, a great many worthy men suffer from the 
want of some such regulation, and a very few 
would be in a position to take advantage of such 
a provision until after their second season, and 
then there would hardly be anything left for 
them to take. Enterprising, industrious men, 
who would work almost continuously, might get 
some benefit, probably would, but no others, so 
such a regulation could not do very much harm, 
and might help some deserving people. As it 
is now, men stake claims on nearly every new 
find, some having several claims in the Klondike 
locality. They know, I believe, that they will 
not be able to hold them, but as the localities are 
not yet clearly defined, they can hold on to them 
for awhile, and finally, by collusion with others, 
acquire an interest in them." 

The same surveyor reports that a quartz lode 
showing free gold in paying quantities and test- 
ing more than $100 to the ton has been discov- 
ered nineteen miles from the Yukon. His in- 
formation was that the lode is from three to 
eight feet in thickness. ''I am confident," he 
concludes, "from the nature of the gold found 
in the creeks, that many more quartz lodes, and 



206 Klondike. 

rich, too, will be found. The yellow metal is not 
found in paying quantities in the main river, but 
in the small streams which cut through the 
mountains on either side. In most cases the 
gold lies at the bottom of thick gravel and clay 
deposits. The gold is covered by frozen ground 
in the winter. During the summer, until the 
snow is melted, the surface is covered by muddy 
torrents. After the snow is all melted and the 
springs begin to freeze, the streams dry up. In 
the Klondike district there are 134 rich claims 
being worked; two men on each claim. Many 
claims beyond this number are staked off, but 
the yield of gold is poor in comparison." 

In the spring the sluicing begins. Several of 
these boxes are then set up with a considerable 
slope, and are fitted into one another at the ends, 
like a stovepipe. A stream of water is now di- 
rected into the upper end of the highest box. 
The gravel having been collected, as in the case 
of the rocker, it is shoveled into the upper box, 
and is washed downward by the strong current 
of water. 

It is safe to assume that not ten per cent, of 
the people who have recently started for the 
Klondike country, or who contemplate going, 
have any knowledge of either placer or quartz 
mining. Few of them know the meaning of 
"pan," "rocker" or "tom," but all have an 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 207 

abiding faith in their ability to learn how to 
operate these things. To the old-time gold- 
miner the pan is an indispensable companion. 
It is twelve inches in diameter at the bottom, 
and from fifteen to sixteen inches on the top, the 
sides inclining outward at an angle of about 
thirty degrees, and being turned over a wire 
around the edge to make it strong. It is gen- 
erally used in prospecting and cleaning gold- 
bearing sand, and in collecting amalgam from 
the sluices. There is a certain amount of skill 
required in its use, which can only be gained by 
actual practice. The pan is filled with dirt and 
submerged in a tub or pool of water, and the 
gravel worked with the hand until all the hard 
material is disintegrated. Of course stones are 
cleaned and thrown out and then what remains 
in the pan is carefully washed. By a circular 
motion and the use of the water all the lighter 
dirt is worked to the top and over the edge until 
only the fine gold remains. 

A box forty inches long and sixteen wide on 
the bottom with the twelve-inch sides sloped like 
a cradle, constitutes the rocker. The upper end 
is a hopper twenty inches square and four inches 
deep, with perforated iron bottom with half- 
inch holes. Under the perforated plate is a 
light frame placed at an incline upon which a 
canvas apron is stretched, forming a riffle. The 



208 Klondike. 

gravel is thrown into the hopper and water is 
poured in with a dipper held in one hand while 
the other is employed in "rocking" the cradle. 
The water washes the sand to the bottom of the 
hopper and the gold is caught in the apron or 
picked up in the bottom of the rocker, while the 
sand and lighter material are discharged at the 
lower end. In the "tom" the miner finds a 
rough trough twelve feet long, fifteen by twenty 
inches wide at the top, thirty inches wide at the 
lower end, and eight inches deep for its entire 
length. If the "torn" be set on timbers or 
stones, it is given an incline of one inch to the 
foot. A sheet-iron plate perforated with holes 
— say half an inch in diameter — forms the bot- 
tom of the lower end of the trough, which is 
beveled on the lower side in order to keep the 
plate on a level. The sand when fed in from, 
the sluices on striking the perforated plate is im- 
mediately sorted, the fine dirt with the water 
passing through it, while the coarser dirt and 
rock is shoveled off. Under the perforated 
plate is a flat box into which the finer gravel 
passes. By the continual discharge of water 
through the plate and with the occasional aid of 
a shovel, the sand is kept loose, allowing the gold 
to settle. 

The mining methods of the Klondike are very 
strange and are adapted to peculiar conditions. 




Gold Miners at Work.— Page 209, 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 209 

There pay gravel happens to lie several feet 
below the mucky beds of the creeks and must be 
mined out. At nearly all the other Yukon 
placers ranged along the river for 300 miles, the 
gold is in surface gravel. In these diggings little 
or nothing can be done except from about June 
15 to September 1, when the water runs. 

On the Klondike the running water prevents 
mining out the gravel under the creek beds, and 
so it is all taken out during the months when 
everything is frozen solid, and when the icy 
chains break in the short summer the gravel that 
has been mined is quickly sluiced and the golil 
cleaned up. Prospecting consists of sinking a 
shaft to bedrock by the creek, by alternately 
thawing the ground with fires and digging it 
out." When the bottom is reached the prospector 
knows more than he did before. If a pan of 
bottom gravel washed out with water from 
melted ice shows up rich the claim is worked by 
tunneling in. 

In doing this dry wood is placed against the 
face of the drift, and other pieces are thickly set 
slantwise over them. As the fire burns gravel 
falls down from above and gradually covers the 
slanting shield of wood. The fire smolders 
away and becomes a charcoal-burning. It is in 
this confined stage during the night that its heat 
is most efEective against the face of the drift. 



210 Klondike. 

Next day the miner finds the faoe of his drift 
thawed out for a distance of from ten to eight- 
een inches, according to conditions. He shovels 
out the dirt, and if only a part is pay dirt he 
puts only that on his dump. Thus at the rate 
of a few inches a day the drifting out of the pre- 
cious gravel goes on during the long winter. 

The descriptions by the returned miners show 
that, as usual, while much of the gravel just 
above bedrock is wonderfully rich, the bedrock 
itself is the richest depository. The bedrock 
appears to be everywhere cracked and broken 
up by frost and glacial action. It is thus full of 
crevices and interstices filled with a clayey 
gravel, and it is these crevices which yield most 
richly. "Cre vicing" is familiar to all placer 
miners, but there is here something unusual — a 
phenomenal multiplication of crevices in bed- 
rock, and they are described as often extending 
downward several feet. ISTo specimens of the 
rock have been brought down, and there is no 
reliable identification of it as yet. This bedrock 
is so greatly broken up in the way described that 
no blasting is necessary. It is easily removed 
with picks, and is simply thrown on the dumps 
to be sluiced as the gravel is. 

The gold so concentrated in the crevices sticks 
to the clinging gravel and clay, and is in the 
residue which is shoveled out too, of course. 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 211 

Not one has given the slightest description of 
the fields as a mining engineer would like to 
hear it. Inquiry as to whether any "mining 
expert" had been heard of in the Yukon elicited 
the reply: 

"Yes, there is a fellow up there who pretends 
to know a lot, I believe. That's 'Swift-Water 
Bill.' I don't know his other name." 

A Mr. Grewe is one of the lucky Argonauts. 
When he went to Alaska he proceeded to Forty- 
Mile Creek, about 700 miles overland from the 
coast, and in the midst of what have been re- 
cently termed the Klondike gold fields. The 
location can be seen by reference to the accom- 
panying map in this book. It was on one of the 
branches of the above-named creek where he and 
his partner staked off their claims. The miners 
always work in couples, as to do the work prop- 
erly requires two men, especially when they toil 
through the winter; and that is necessary if 
health permits and one determines to make big 
money. 

"The first thing done," said Mr. Grewe in 
describing the operations of himself and com- 
panion, "was to sink a shaft alongside the creek 
twenty to forty feet deep, this work being done 
in the winter. First of all a fire was built where 
the shaft was dug, in order to melt the ice, which 
is usually three or four feet thick, and get at 



212 Klondike. 

the soil. Then picks are used until a sufficient 
depth is obtained. From this shaft are run 
tunnels in the bed of the creek, the water of 
which, of course, is f ozen solid. Before this is 
done, however, a windlass is rigged with two 
buckets, and all dirt, sand or gravel hauled up 
and piled near by. In these tunnels are built 
fires, which are left to burn over night and then 
in the morning commences the work of removing 
the slush and sand, which is hauled to the top 
of the shaft and added to the pile of frozen dirt 
and gold already there. Such work as this is 
continued all winter." 

As the tunnels are run with the course of the 
stream it should be understood that the dirt or 
sand sent to the top of the shaft is the sediment 
deposited at the bottom of the river. While, 
says Mr. Grewe, the man in the tunnel has the 
more comfortable half of the job, still he suffers 
much from the smoke, the only outlet for which 
is the shaft. The man at the windlass has a 
terrible time of it, because, as the thermometer 
ranges from 40 to 60 degrees below zero and 
sometimes lower, he is frequently compelled to 
quit work. 

In summer, and that season is only from three 
to four months long, active outdoor work begins. 
The ice melts and the streams are swollen. 
Then the miners build sluices, or troughs. 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 213 

usually twelve in number, which are placed end 
to end and a stream turned into them. The 
first few are of smooth bottom, and the last three 
are crossed with cleats. The sand is thrown 
into the head of the sluice, and by the time it 
reaches the last sluices the gold is there deposited. 
The quantity of gold caught in this manner 
varies greatly, and much of it is naturally lost. 
Sometimes in a bucket of dirt there may be 
three or four ounces of gold. The largest nug- 
get Mr. Grewe found was worth $7. 

Captain J. F. Higgins, who has commanded 
one of the river boats, says: 

"The word Klondike means Fish River, and 
the stream is called the Fish River on the charts. 
It empties into the Yukon fifty miles above the 
Big River. The geographical position of the 
junction is 76 degrees, 10 minutes north lati- 
tude, 138 degrees, 50 minutes west longitude. 
Bonanza Creek dumps into the Klondike about 
two miles above the Yukon. El Dorado is a trib- 
utary of the Bonanza. There are numerous 
other creeks and tributaries, the main river being 
3,000 miles long. 

"The gold so far has been taken from Bonanza 
and El Dorado, both well named, for the richness 
of the placers is truly marvelous. El Dorado, 
thirty miles long, is staked the whole length and 
as far as worked has paid. 



214 KlondiJce. 

"One of onr passengers who is taking home 
$100,000 with him has worked 100 feet of his 
ground and refused $200,000 for the remainder, 
and confidently expects to clean up $400,000 and 
more. He has in a bottle 1212 from one pan of 
dirt. His pay dirt while being washed averaged 
$250 an hour to each man shoveling in. Two 
others of our miners who worked their own claim 
cleaned up $G,000 from one day's washing. 

"There is about fifteen feet of dirt above bed- 
rock, the pay streak averaging from four to six 
feet, which is tunneled out while the ground is 
frozen. Of course the dirt taken out is thawed 
by building fires; and when the summer thaw 
comes and water rushes in, they set their sluices 
and v/ash the dirt. Two of our fellows thought 
a small bird in the hand worth a large one in the 
bush, and sold their claims for $45,000, getting 
$4,500 down, the remainder to be paid in monthly 
installments of $10,000 each. The purchasers 
had no more than $5,000 paid. They were 
twenty days thawing and getting out the dirt. 
Then there was no water to sluice with, but one 
fellow made a rocker, and in ten days took out 
the $10,000 for the first installment. So tunnel- 
ing and rocking, they took out $40,000 before 
there was water to sluice with. 

"Of course, these things read like the story of 
Aladdin, but fiction is not at all in it with facts 



A Mmiual for Gold Seekers. 215 

at Klondike. The ground located and pros- 
pected can be worked out in a few years, but 
there is an immense territory untouched, and 
the laboring man who can get there with one 
year's provisions will have a better chance to 
make a stake than in any other part of the 
world." 

According to Dr. W. H. Dall, one of the 
curators of the National Museum at Washington: 

"The yellow metal is not found in paying 
quantities in the main river, but in the small 
streams which cut through the mountains on 
either side. These practically wash out the 
gold. The mud and mineral matter is carried 
into the main river, while the gold is left on the 
rough bottoms of these side streams. In most 
cases the gold lies at the bottom of thick gravel 
deposits. 

"Blasting would do no good on account of the 
hard nature of the material which would blow out 
just as out of a gun. The shafts vary indepth from 
six feet up to eighteen or twenty. The gravel 
takenout is dumped into a pile and left till spring, 
when sluice boxes are made and the dirt washed 
out. When the creeks thaw in the spring the 
miners work day and night at their sluicing in 
order to get as much of their dump washed out as 
possible before the creeks get low. In the crevices 
running across the creek are found a great deal 



216 Klondike. 

of gold, and from these come the big pans of 
which so much has been said. These crevices 
are split in the bedrock, and act as basins to 
catch the gold washed out by the creek. 

*'Up to this time all the work has been placer 
mining, and few, if any, investigations have 
been made as to the quartz deposits. The re- 
turned miners say that there is not the slightest 
doubt of the existence of rich quartz ledges, and 
it is expected that they will now be looked into, 
and plans made to work them by the gold hunt- 
ers whom the announcement of the late discov- 
eries has started for the fields." 

The claims on the Bonanza are numbered from 
the point of discovery both up and down the 
creek. These claims are 500 feet long and ex- 
tend from "mountain to mountain." When a 
miner stakes a claim it costs him 115 to record 
it, and $100 each succeeding year. He is 
obliged to work the claim for three months in 
each year. If it is left idle it can be jumped. 
The location of claims is not restricted to Amer- 
icans, but is open to all nationalities. 

Mr. Ogilvie announces the location of a quartz 
lode showing free gold in paying quantities 
along one of the creeks. The quartz has tested 
over $100 a ton. The lode appears to run from 
three to eight feet in thickness, and is about 
nineteen miles from the Yukon Kiver. Good 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 217 

quartz has been found also at the head of a 
branch of the Alaska Eiver near the head of the 
Chilkat Inlet inside the summit of the coast 
range in Canadian Territory; also along Davis 
Creek in American Territory. The hills around 
Bonanza Creek also contain paying quartz. 
Copper in abundance is found on the southerly 
branch of the White Eiver, and silver ore has 
been picked up in a creek flowing into Bennett 
Lake. Mr. Ogilvie says that the placer pros- 
pects continue to be more and more encouraging 
and extraordinary. 

"It is beyond a doubt," he says, "that three 
pans of different claims on El Dorado turned out 
$204, $212, and $216, but it must be borne in 
mind that there were only three such pans, 
though there are many running from $10 to $50. 
Since my last, the prospects on Bonanza Creek 
and tributaries are increasing in richness and 
extent, until now it is certain millions will be 
taken out of the district in the next few years. 
On some of the claims prospected the pay dirt is 
of great extent and very rich. One man told me 
yesterday that he washed out a single pan of dirt 
on one of the claims on Bonanza Creek and 
found $14.25 in it. Of course, that may be an 
exceptionally rich pan, but $5 to $7 per pan is 
the average on that claim, it is reported, with 
five feet pay dirt and the width yet undeter- 



218 Klondike. 

mined, but known to be thirty feet; even at that 
figure the result at nine to ten pans to the cubic 
foot, and 500 feet long, is 14,000,000 at $5 per 
pan. One-fourth of this would be enormous. 
Enough prospecting has been done to show that 
there are at least fifteen miles of this extraor- 
dinary richness, and the indications are that we 
will have three or four times that extent, if not 
equal to the above, at least very rich." 

Short extracts from longer statements follow: 

"I do not know in the whole Klondike region 
a single claim that has not paid handsomely, and 
there are still hundreds of claims that have not 
been worked." 

"In testing a claim the prospector sinks a hole, 
say fifteen feet, and then tries a pan of dirt. If 
the pay streak has been reached he sets to work 
in earnest to gather in more of the precious 
metal." 

''I have known men to hoist in a day as many 
as 250 buckets of soil, each weighing 250 pounds. 
This dirt is not disturbed until spring, when it 
is washed out; and when a man buys a claim he 
buys the dump also, but he takes his own 
chances on the latter." 

"Under the new ruling each claim is 500 feet 
along the bottom of the creek, the width being 
governed by the distance between the mountains. 
This will average 600 feet, though there are 
some claims 1,000 feet wide." 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 219 

In ordinary panning there is little chance of 
mistaking gold, both by its yellow color and by 
its separating itself from all other matter by its 
specific gravity. If a prospector wants to show 
the "colors" he generally winnows down the 
matter on the pan till there is scarcely a tea- 
spoonful, or much less; then by moving the pan 
to and fro sideways he will show the yellow gold 
appearing at one end of the teaspoonful of other 
matter like a gilt edging, so to speak, commonly 
showing very distinct by its gold-yellow color — 
which may be a rich gold-yellow or a paler tint. 
The "other matter" may be composed, especially 
if there are stamp mills up stream, of com- 
minuted iron pyrites. The gold, however, will 
be distinct from this by its richer color, and also 
will readily separate itself from it by its 
gravity, forming a sort of gilt edging around 
the "other matter." Pyrite will appear of a 
duller, more tin-like, or brass-like, or even 
greenish color than the bright gold. The other 
common residual matter is so-called "black 
sand," usually composed of magnetic iron. This 
certainly will not amalgamate under any cir- 
cumstances. Grains of platinum, sometimes — ■ 
but rarely — occurring with placer gold, will, 
however, amalgamate. You can separate the 
black sand by picking it off with a magnet. 
Bronze or yellowish oxidized mica, from its light 



220 Klondike. 

specific gravity, quickly separates from the gold 
and is winnowed off, commonly at an early stage 
in the winnowing process, or must finally pass 
away in faithful winnowing of the residuum. 
Bronze mica does not carry any appreciable 
amount of gold. 

Gold does sometimes occur in leafy, chaff-like 
forms in a placer, when it will float on the sur- 
face of the water, and you may find it difficult 
to keep it from washing away with the other 
stuff. If you let the pan dry and let the flakes 
adhere to the bottom, directly you put water in 
the flakes will float again. Of course they will 
amalgamate. Gold is generally pretty distinct 
yellow gold in a placer, though often tarnished 
in veins. 

A "lay" means a privilege to work another 
man's claim, and to "burn" a "lay" means to 
thaw out a hole by building a big fire on the 
ground. 

Upon the banks or in the beds of streams in 
gold territory, there will be found, as everywhere 
on streams, an admixture of sand, gravel and 
soil. These have been mixed together by action 
of the water pouring down the streams and hill- 
sides for ages. Just how gold has been formed is 
not known, but in this admixture of sand, gravel 
and soil it is found in particles so small as to be 
about invisible, and from that on up to the size 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 221 

of birdshot, garden peas^ hazelnuts, and now 
and then nuggets the size of pigeon eggs. But 
for the most part they are the size of shot. If a 
pan of dirt will yield ten cents' worth of gold, it 
is called "pay dirt" and will yield fair wages to 
work. If it yields fifteen cents, it is promising, 
and if twenty cents it is called "rich." As the 
average miner can gather and work forty panfuls 
a day, if the dirt is rich, it will be seen that he 
can make $8 a day. But the Klondike places of 
the poorest yield are reported as turning out not 
less than thirty cents' worth of "dust" to the 
pan, and in some places as high as $1 to the pan- 
ful have been found. 

An ounce of this gold "dust" at the mines or 
elsewhere is worth from $15 to $19, according to 
its purity, in coined gold, and passes for 
"money" in the diggings or vicinity, and is 
often the only money they have in the early 
stages of the mining. As every store, or mer- 
chant, in a mining town has gold scales, and 
accepts "dust" as so much coined money or 
paper currency, but little inconvenience results 
in business. 

Owing to its remarkable affinity for gold, mer- 
cury is extremely useful to the miner; unfor- 
tunately its weight has hitherto prevented its 
being generally employed on the Yukon. It 
mav be distributed in the sluices, or better still. 



222 Klondike. 

used in connection with copper plates that are 
then said to be "amalgamated." The copper 
plates that it is desired to coat with quicksilver 
are first covered with clear water two or three 
inches deep. The water is then acidulated with 
sulphuric acid until it tastes like strong vinegar. 
After a short immersion, and when perfectly 
bright, the plates are taken out, and before be- 
coming quite dry are rubbed with quicksilver, the 
rubbing being done with a piece of chamois skin. 
The plates are then washed in cold water and 
fitted to the bottoms of the sluices. Any "free" 
gold brought to them by the current is imme- 
diately attracted and remains fast to the surface 
of the plate. When the plates are heavily in- 
crusted with gold they are removed, strongly 
heated over live coals and the precious metal 
scraped off. 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 223 



PROSPECTING. 

The prospector is the pioneer in the work of 
mineral development. He is the pathfinder to 
hidden wealth. His part is wholly initiative; his 
role is at an end almost invariably with the estab- 
lishment of a fixed value on his "find." Yet 
without the prospector we should be as free of 
mines as the country would be of approved 
methods of manufacture without the inventor. 
An individual idea is essentially an originality, 
and it is but natural that when a man chooses an 
avocation he has ideas peculiarly his own con- 
cerning its conduct. The adaptation of peculiar 
individual ideas in the conduct of mining opera- 
tions, from the quest for a paying ledge to the 
development of a mine to a point of profitable ex- 
traction, has been the cause in nine instances out 
of ten of every mining venture recorded as 
failure. Mining is admittedly a business, but 
only when conducted along legitimate lines. 
Mining requires ability and experience, push 
and perseverance, essential factors to success in 
any enterprise. Its adoption by a novice, lik© 



224 Klondike. 

anything else, must needs be attended sometimes 
with disaster, but if pursued with tact and en- 
ergy, governed by the exercise of common sense 
and a willingness to heed the advice and counsels 
of more experienced men, mining offers to-day 
as safe a channel to competency as does banking 
or the various lines of trade. 

Prospecting, from a mining standpoint, might 
best be termed a search for rocks containing 
mineral of recognized value. Prerequisites of 
the prospector, would he have success crown his 
efforts, are brains, brawn, and perseverance. He 
is fortunate, indeed, if he has armed himself, 
prior to embarkment to the pursuit, with a 
knowledge of practical assaying, and of geology 
sufficient to give him an insight into the various 
formations and the indications usually illustrated 
thereby, and of mineralogy, that he may with a 
fair degree of accuracy know the different ores, 
and reasonably approximate their commercial 
worth. By a fair idea of practical assaying is 
meant the ability, minus a furnace and the usual 
field assay outfit, to arrive at a reasonably close 
idea of the value of an ore with the aid of a 
home-made affair or a blacksmith's forge, and 
such chemicals as every experienced prospector of 
our times now deems as requisite a part of his 
outfit as his pick, shovel, and pan. His insight 
into geologic conditionik he must gain by that 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 225 

best of preceptors — observation; of mineralogy 
by as careful a comparison of the different rocks 
encountered. If possessed of the knowledge 
outlined, the shrewd prospector will take careful 
note of the topographical conditions governing 
the area about to be prospected, and as far as 
possible gain some idea concerning its geological 
features. The rocks termed "float" will next 
engage his careful attention. Float, singularly, 
is a detached piece of quartz, or ore, from a 
ledge, lode, or deposit of like material. A piece 
of float picked up for examination is found 
smooth and well worn. This fact is evidence 
that its mother lode lies at a distance from where 
it is found. If its contour, on the contrary, be 
rough, and its edges pointed, the chances are 
good that the ledge from which it was detached 
is close at hand. This last described float found 
by the prospector, he should next carefully scru- 
tinize all rocks in the vicinity, looking to the 
right and to the left as he proceeds, and turning 
over all loose rocks in his search for an outcrop, 
or the exposed portion of the vein or lode, whence 
came the waif float. We will suppose the out- 
crop discovered. The prospector should next 
ascertain its strike or trend, i.e., the direction 
in which it runs, either north, east, south, west, 
etc. This may be determined by excavating a 
series of cross-cuts on the surface of the vein at 



226 Klondike. 

distances apart as equal as possible. These open 
cross-cnts will also demonstrate the thickness or 
width of the lode, its uniformity and general 
surface condition. This work completed, care 
should be exercised in ascertaining the value of 
the surface ore contained in the deposit. If 
assay results are satisfactory, the work of actual 
development may be proceeded with. 

So far as demonstrated some sixty or seventy 
elements form the earth's crust. Omnipresent 
among these elements is oxygen. The coloring 
element is as predominantly iron. Aqueous, 
igneous, atmospheric, and organic agencies are 
constantly changing the character of this crust. 
Atmospheric agencies — winds, frost, etc. — in 
chemical combination with oxygen and carbonic 
acid cause a disintegration and crumbling of the 
different minerals. The aqueous agency, or 
action of water, causes a wearing away or erosion 
of these minerals; the same agency often forci- 
bly removing them to long distances. The 
igneous agency, or action of fire, is constantly 
renewing the mineral deposits of the earth's 
crust through the medium of eruptive action, or 
warm springs. Organic matter found on the crust 
may be traced to deposits of vegetable matter. 
Eocks are either hard or soft, stratified, or un- 
stratified. A stratified rock is either arenaceous 
(sand), argillaceous (clay), or calcareous (lime). 



A Manual for Gold Seehers. 227 

A stratified rock in its natural position should be 
horizontal; but it may have been thrown up to 
any angle by reason of volcanic action. The un- 
stratified rocks being lower than their stratified 
brethren, through the action of volcanic influ- 
ences, often cause the stratified rocks to enfold 
or entwine with themselves, causing the great 
irregularity of stratification. 

The angle formed by the plane of the strata 
with the plane of the horizon is the "dip" of the 
rock. The strike or trend of a mineral forma- 
tion is always at right angles to the dip. Non- 
conformity in stratification is caused by the 
violent upheavals and dislocations of such strata, 
as noted in several mineral districts. What is 
termed a "joint" is best described as a crossing 
of the stratification by a regular fissure; hence 
the term "a true fissure vein." 

Cleavage is a term used in connection with the 
division of rocks into small sheets, or planes. 

Eruptive rocks form a distinct class. To it 
belong granite, porphyritic granite, syenitic, 
albitic and graphic granite. Granite is com- 
posed of quartz, feldspar and mica. The por- 
phyritic granite is distinguished by its excess of 
feldspar; the syenitic because it contains horn- 
blend instead of mica; the albitic is easily dis- 
tinguished by its white color; and in the graphic 
granite quartz predominates. 



228 Klondihe. 

Trap rocks, so called, are compositions of 
greenstone, basalt, trachyte and serpentine. 
The greenstone is generally found to be com- 
posed of feldspar and hornblend of a greenish 
color. The basalt is a black or darkish brown 
colored rock, its component parts being augite 
and feldspar. The serpentine is a silicate of 
magnesia, usually of a greenish hue. The 
trachyte is a variety of lava of a dark-green color. 

To the class termed volcanic rocks belong 
obsidian, a melted lava, appearing like smoky 
glass; pumice, a feldspathic cinder, very light in 
weight; and scoria, the slaggy exudation of 
volcanoes. 

Among stratified rocks are gneiss, a stratified 
granite; syenitic gneiss, containing hornblend, 
instead of mica; mica schist; hypogene lime- 
stone, blue in color; chlorate schist, a magnesian 
mineral, soft and flexible; hornblend schist, col- 
ored by oxide of iron to a greenish-black color; 
clay slate, an argillaceous rock; and the various 
members of the quartz family. The three prin- 
cipal members of the quartz family with which the 
prospector will deal are the vitreous, calcidonic 
and jasper. Among the vitreous varieties are 
amethyst, a purple colored rock, colored by 
oxide of manganese; the topaz, color yellow; 
smoky quartz, known as cairngorm quartz; milky 
quartz and the yellow, green, and red quartzes. 



A Manual far Gold Seekers. 229 

Oxide of iron is the coloring element in all these 
rocks. Calcidonic quartzes are known as the 
sardonyx, carnelian, agate, onyx, cat's-eye and 
flint hornstone. The jaspers are the opal, 
touchstone, bloodstone and v/ood jasper. 

Quartzite is a quartz sand metamorphosed by 
pressure into a hard mass through the agency of 
silica. It occurs in the large masses, inter-strati- 
fied with limestones, slates, and schists. 

There are five members of the spar family, and 
all are distinguished by their coloration. Feld- 
spar is either of a white or pinkish hue, and 
pearl spar of a pearly luster. Fluorspar is gen- 
erally in masses, though often found in cubes. 
Heavy spar, or baryta, is known by its brown or 
dark brown color. Calcspar, or calcite, is a 
crystalline carbonite of lime, white, red or yel- 
low in color, these colors being the result of the 
mixture of iron, manganese, and other coloring 
impurities. 

The inexperienced prospector often mistakes 
mica" for gold. Mica may be detected in several 
ways. Though it may look like gold in certain 
positions, if that position be changed there will 
be a change in the color, while gold itself looks 
the same in every position. Gold will beat out 
thin and soft under the hammer like lead, Avhile 
mica breaks up in fine particles of a white floury- 
looking substance. In panning a sample the 
gold will remain and the mica float away. 



230 Klondike. 

Gold will dissolve in a solution of aqua regia, 
made of three parts hydrochloric acid and one 
part nitric acid. If you add some sulphate of 
iron you will get a very decided precipitate of 
metallic gold. It is best to add a little water 
after the gold is dissolved, then a little hydro- 
chloric acid, aud then the sulphate of iron. The 
gold is then placed in a crucible or ladle and 
heated, and a yellow bead of pure gold obtained. 

Another simple test for gold is to add to the 
dissolved gold some crystals of chloride of tin, 
when you will get a purple color, known to 
chemists as the purple of Cassius. 

Fissure veins, in which permanent gold mines 
may be expected, are usually ascribed to volcanic 
action. They are sometimes called leads, and 
sometimes lodes. These veins may contain 
quartz, fluorspar, heavy spar or baryta, calcite 
and dolomite, associated with the precious 
metals. It has been ascertained that it is among 
the silicious rocks, such as granite, that mineral- 
ized quartz s most frequently found. When a 
vein is broken or dislocated it is said by miners 
to be "faulted." The gangue is the worthless 
matter of the lead. 

Quartz containing gold is generally of a rusty 
color, though some very valuable gold leads are 
pure white and show evidence to the naked eye 
of the treasure they contain. Sometimes this 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 231 

rusty gold is very difficult to save, escaping all 
attempts at amalgamating it with quicksilver, 
owing probably to a thin film of iron oxide coat- 
ing it and preventing contact with the mercury. 
The tenderfoot prospector is often deceived by 
substances resembling gold. Iron pyrites bear a 
strong likeness to the precious metal, especially 
when in the form of small cubes or dice em- 
bedded in a quartz gangue. Copper pyrites and 
yellow mica also simulate to the inexperienced 
the metal of which they are in search. 



232 Klondike. 



THE CLIMATE. 

Much misconception as to the climate of the 
gold fields has arisen from the fact that for a 
long time the only records available were those 
of the United States Government officers sta- 
tioned at Sitka, St. Michael's Island, the Seal 
Islands, or at Point Barrow within the Arctic cir- 
cle. Meteorological records from these points 
give about as accurate a conception of the climate 
at Dawson City as would a report of the weather 
from Philadelphia of the climatic conditions of 
Helena, Montana. 

The contingent of Northwest Mounted Police 
which left for the Yukon in 1895 was supplied 
with accurate thermometers by the Toronto 
Meteorological Service. The observations were 
commenced at Fort Constantine in November, 
1895, by Staff Sergeant Hayne, who has furnished 
returns up to the close of May, 1897. 

In the autumn of 1895 the temperature first 
touched zero on November 10, and the last zero 
recorded in the spring was on April 29. Between 
December 19 and February 6, it never rose above 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. ^8S 

zero. The lowest actual reading, minus five de- 
grees, occurred on January 27, and on twenty- 
four days during the winter the temperature was 
below minus 50. On March 12 it first rose above 
the freezing point, but no continuous mild 
weather occurred until May 4, after which date 
the temperature during the balance of the month 
frequently rose above 60 degrees. The Yukon 
Eiver froze up on October 28, and broke up on 
May 17. Forty-Mile Eiver broke up on May 11. 

In June the temperature reached 70 degrees 
on twelve days, and on only one day, the 30th, 
did it reach 80 degrees. The last frost was re- 
corded on the 7th; the average temperature of 
the month was 53 degrees, which is three de- 
grees lower than the normal June temperature 
on Lake Athabasca, and nearly the same as the 
May normal in Winnipeg. 

The average temperature for July was 57 de- 
grees; the highest, 82 degrees, was reached on the 
1st, and the lowest, 35.5 degrees, on the 27th. 
Eain fell on eleven days and the amount was 
1.71 inches. 

In August the highest temperature was 76 
degrees, and no frost occurred until the 31st, 
when the thermometer fell to 29 degrees. Eain 
fell on 11 days. 

The average for September was only -13 de- 
grees, which is three degrees lower than the usual 
October average in Toronto; rain fell on 12 days. 



234 Klondike. 

It may be said that the winter set in on Sep- 
tember 27, and on September 30 the tempera- 
ture fell to 6 degrees above zero. Zero was first 
touched on October 5, and the average tempera- 
ture of that month was 27 degrees, or about the 
same as the December average in Toronto. 

November was very cold, the average of the 
month being 7 degrees; the lowest reading regis- 
tered was minus 39 degrees. The Yukon froze 
up on the 5th. 

December average was minus 13; the tempera- 
ture fell to 35 degrees on eight occasions, and 
minus 40 degrees was the lowest registered. 

January was not as cold as in the previous 
year, the average temperature being but minus 
15 degrees, as against minus 38 degrees in the 
previous year; forty degrees below zero or lower 
was recorded on five days, the lowest reading 
being minus 48 degrees. 

February was also mild compared with the 
previous year, the mean temperature being plus 
3 degrees, and the lowest temperature registered 
minus 31 degrees. 

The average temperature in March was 1 de- 
gree, or 8 degrees lower than the previous March, 
and on two consecutive days, the 16th and 17th, 
the two lowest temperature of the winter were 
registered, namely minus 54, and minus 53 
degrees. 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 235 

In April the days were mostly mild and the 
nights cold. The lowest reading was minus 5 
degrees, which was the last zero temperature of 
the winter. 

The month of May, 1897, was very similar to 
the preceding May; the average temperature 
was 40 degrees; 60 degrees was tirst recorded on 
the 26th, and 75 degrees on the 31st; the lowest 
of the month was 11 degrees, on the 9th. Forty- 
Mile Creek broke up on the 13th, and the Yukon 
on the 15th. 

Owing to the unusual interest excited by the 
discovery of gold in the Klondike region, Willis 
L. Moore, Chief of the Weather Bureau, at 
Washington, D.C., has prepared, at the direction 
of Secretary of Agriculture Wilson, a special 
bulletin describing at length and in a most in- 
teresting way the weather conditions of Alaska 
at all seasons of the year. With regard to '*tem- 
perate Alaska," by which is meant the fringe of 
islands between the mainland and the sea, and 
the strip of mainland running along the coast to 
the western extremity of the Territory, and about 
twenty miles back from the sea, the report says 
the temperature rarely falls to zero. Winter 
does not set in until December 1, and snow dis- 
appears, except on the mountains, by May 1. 
The average temperature of July, the warmest 
month of summer, rarely reaches 55 degrees, 



^^6 Klondih. 

and the highest does not exceed 75 degi^ees. 
The mean winter temperature of Sitka is 32.5 
degrees, or a little less than at Washington, D.O. 
The report then continues: 

"The rainfall of temperate Alaska is notorious 
the world over, not only as regards the quantity 
that falls, but also as to the manner of its fall- 
ing, viz., in long and incessant rains and drizzles. 
Clouds and fog naturally abound, there being on 
an average but fifty-six clear days in the year. 
Alaska is a land of striking contrasts, in climate 
as well as in topography. When the sun shines 
the atmosphere is remarkably clear, the scenic 
effects are magnificent; and nature seems to be 
in holiday attire, but the scene may change very 
quickly. The sky becomes overcast, the winds 
increase in force, rain begins to fall, the ever- 
greens sigh ominously, and utter desolation and 
loneliness prevail. 

"North of the Aleutian Islands the coast climate 
becomes more rigorous in winter, but in summer 
the difference is much less marked. Thus at St. 
Michael, a short distance north of the mouth of 
the Yukon, the mean summer temperature is 50 
degrees, but four degrees cooler than Sitka. 
The mean summer temperature of Point Barrow, 
the most northerly point in the United States, is 
■ 36.6 degrees, but four-tenths of a degree less 
than the temperature of the air flowing across 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 237 

the summit of Pike's Peak, Colorado. The 
rainfall of the coast region north of the Yukon 
delta is small, diminishing to less than ten 
inches within the Arctic circle. 

"The climate of the interior, including in that 
designation practically all of the country except 
a narrow fringe of coastal margin and the terri- 
tory before referred to as temperate Alaska, is 
one of extreme rigor in winter, with a brief but 
relatively hot summer, especially when the sky is 
free from clouds. In the Klondike region in 
midwinter the sun rises from 9:30 to 10 a.m., 
and sets from 2 to 3 p.m., the total length of 
daylight being about four hours. Eemembering 
that the sun rises but a few degrees above the 
horizon, and that it is wholly obscured on a great 
many days, the character of the winter months 
may easily be imagined." 

The statement of Professor Moore includes a 
series of six months' observations by the United 
States Coast and Geodetic Survey on the Yukon 
not far from the region of the present gold dis- 
coveries. These observations, which, of course, 
are absolutely reliable, show that the mean tem- 
perature from October, 1889, to April 1890, both 
Inclusive, were as follows: 

"October, 33 degrees above zero; November, 8 
degrees above; December, 11 degrees below zero; 
January, 17 degrees below; February, 15 degrees 



238 Klondike. 

below; March, 6 degrees above zero; April, 20 
degrees above. The daily mean temperatiire 
fell and remained below the freezing point (33 
degrees) from November 4, 1889, to April 21, 
1890, thus giving 168 days as the length of the 
closed season, 1889-90, assuming that outdoor 
operations are controlled by temperature only. 

"The lowest temperatures registered during the 
winter were: 32 degrees below in November; 47 
degrees below in December; 59 degrees below in 
January; 55 degrees below in February; 45 de- 
grees below in March; 26 degrees below in April." 

The report concludes as follows: "In the in- 
terior of Alaska the winter sets in as early as 
September, when snowstorms may be expected 
in the mountains and passes. Traveling during 
one of these storms is impossible, and the traveler 
who is overtaken by one of them is indeed for- 
tunate if he escapes with his life. Snowstorms 
of great severity may occur in any month from 
September to May, inclusive. The changes of 
temperature from winter to summer are rapid, 
owing to the great increase in the length of the 
day. In May the sun rises about 3 a.m. and 
sets about 9 p.m. In June it rises about 1:30 in 
the morning and sets at 10:30, giving about 
twenty hours of daylight, and diflEuse twilight the 
remainder of the time. The mean summer tem- 
perature of the interior doubtless ranges between 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 280 

60 degrees and 70 degrees, according to eleva- 
tion, being highest in the middle and lower 
Yukon valleys." 

Joseph Desroches went to the Yukon country 
last July and made the trip overland to the 
Klondike in less than three weeks from Juneau. 
He has made money, though the amount he 
keeps to himself. ^'When the wind blows through 
the Chilkoot Pass," he said, "no human being can 
stand against it. The velocity is such that a 
man cannot breathe. That is really the most 
dangerous portion of the trip. I don't consider 
the White Horse Rapids a dangerous feature, for 
a man does not need to go through them. I spent 
two winters in the Yukon district, and came 
down the river this summer. Navigation on all 
the rivers in Alaska closes the 15th of Septem- 
ber, and opens the 1st of June. During that 
time the fall of snow is beyond all conception of 
the people of this locality, and the winds are 
simply awful. Everything is frozen solid, and 
what little level ground there is, is one solid 
mass of ice; the earth is frozen to a depth of 
fourteen feet, and no movement can be made ex- 
cept on snow shoes or snow sleds. 

''During the summer time the climate is de- 
lightful and the days are very long. In July a 
person can read at night very plainly. The 
light in winter is from 9 until 3, and the cold 



240 Klondike. 

continuously worse than the bitterest days we 
have here; in fact, the temperature here in win- 
ter gives one the very poorest idea of Alaskan 
cold. It is practically impossible to do any 
prospecting, although in many cases men have 
built fires upon the frozen ground, after digging 
off many feet of snow, and so melted about five 
inches. This would be dug up and thrown on 
the snow, and the same process kept up. When 
the warm weather would come this dirt would be 
run through the sluices." 

Angus Galbraith, though he has made his 
stake there, says he would advise no one to go 
up into the country. He is a man of 70 years of 
age, and has been in Alaska three years, and when 
asked if the work was hard said he had been able 
to stand it, but that it was no place for an old 
man. 

"The winters," he said, in the course of the 
interview, "are very cold, the mercury going 
down as low as 75 degrees below zero. The 
coldest weather last winter was in January and 
February. Miners have to use the greatest care 
not to work themselves into a perspiration, as 
the moisture would freeze and result in frostbite. 

"In summer it gets quite warm and some 
vegetables are raised, though, as the miners are 
so busy hunting for gold, little time is given to 
putting in gardens. When my party left it was 



A Manual for Gold Seek-ers. 241 

93 degrees in the shade. Mosquitoes are so 
numerous that gloves have to be worn while 
working." 

Here is an extract from Assistant Surgeon A. 
E. Willis' of Northwest Mounted Police report 
for 1895: 

"It may be of interest to mention something 
concerning the climate, mode of living of the 
people generally, and diseases met with. The 
climate is wet. The rainfall last summer was 
heavy. Although there is almost a continuous 
sun in summer time, evaporation is very slow 
owing to the thick moss which will not conduct 
the heat, in consequence the ground is always 
swampy. It is only after several years of drain- 
ing that the gro^in'l will become sufficiently dry 
to allow the frost to go out, and then only a few 
feet. During the winter months the cold is in- 
tense, with usually considerable wind. A heavy 
mist rising from open places in the river settles 
down in the valley in calm extreme weather. 
This dampness causes the cold to be felt very 
acutely and is conducive to rheumatic pains, colds 
etc. Minersarea very mixed class of people. They 
represent many nationalities and come from all 
climates. Their lives are certainly not enviable. 
The regulation 'miner's cabin' is twelve feet by 
fourteen feet with walls six feet and gables eight 
feet in height. The roof is heavily earthed and 



242 Klondike. 

the cabin is generally warm. Two and some- 
times there or four men will occupy a house of 
this size. The ventilation is usually bad. Those 
miners who do not work their claims during the 
winter confine themselves in these small huts 
most of the time. Very often they become in- 
dolent and careless, only eating those things 
which are most easily cooked or prepared. Dur- 
ing the busy time in summer when they are 
'shoveling in/ they work harder and for long 
hours, sparing little time for eating and much 
less for cooking." 

The following passages have been culled from 
a budget of interviews:. 

"Dawson City is not a paradise by any means, 
but there are much worse places. In winter the 
cold is intense, but as there is plenty of timber 
around we do not suffer to any great extent. 
Our summer lasts about six weeks, but during 
that time it is very warm. The day we left it 
was 93 in the shade. The mosquito is our worst 
enemy." 

"On the upper Yukon the climate is dry, 
with little rain, but at Forty-Mile there is al- 
most as much rain as in North Dakota and Mon- 
tana. Up in the mountains this rain turns to 
snow, which intereferes with the diggings some- 
times even in midsummer. Singular to say, the 
country is infested with millions upon millions 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 243 

of mosquitoes in the summer, and a man's life is 
in clanger if his face and body are not properly 
protected. It is said that not one-third of the 
men that go to the region in the summer remain 
over winter, as the mosquitoes run them out. 

"In summer there is almost two months of 
continuous daylight. 

"These Klondike Creek facts are mighty in- 
teresting and alluring. No doubt they will at- 
tract many more men to the diggings there next 
spring. But men who are planning to go in 
there want to consider the hardships before they 
start. It is no country for a tenderfoot or a 
quitter. One man, who started on January 3 
from Forty-Mile Post to go to the Klondike 
Creek diggings, arrived there on Feburary 
27. He had to sled his outfit the whole way, 
and in several places had to divide his load and 
double. The thermometer ranged from 42 to 77 
degrees below zero, and he was kept ten days in 
camp at one place by the cold. Gold got by 
such work is hard earned. 

"But there is another side to the picture. 
The bitter must be mixed with the sweet. Win- 
ter lasts nine months in Klondike, and its 
average temperature is 68 degrees below zero, 
but its snow is light and frosty. Summer reigns 
during the remaining three months and in them 
the weather is warm and sultry, and the mog- 



244 Klondike. 

quitoes frisk and frolic about in millions. They 
are in the water one drinks, and, like the gad-fly 
in 'Prometheus Bound/ give man rest neither day 
nor night. Then again it must be remembered 
that, although it is easy to get to Klondike at 
this time of the year, it is impossible to get away 
from there later on in the season. After the 
middle of September both the Juneau and St. 
Michael routes are closed; and all who are in 
Klondike must stay there until the following 
summer. 

"The early summer is the time to reach Alaska, 
say about the last of May or the beginning of 
June, when the placer mining is open and the 
broken ice in the rivers has rendered valuable as- 
sistance in loosening the gravel that contains the 
metal. 

"The rigors of the climate in the gold regions 
have been exaggerated. I have been in Mon- 
tana, and I can say truthfully that the Klondike 
winter is not more severe. The honesty of the 
prospectors is surprising. Locks and keys are 
unknown in the region, and the latchstring is 
always on the outside. On the whole, the pros- 
pector is as safe as if he were in Pennsylvania. 

"The country is healthy, the climate warm 
during the summer and the days long and quite 
dry; during the winter the days are short and 
very cold. 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 245 

"The weather in Alaska is pleasant in the sum- 
mer/' said Inspector Constantine of the Northwest 
Mounted Police, in the course of an interview, 
"but in the winter one suffers from the cold very 
much. It rains every day up there, and if it 
should happen to miss a day it always makes up 
for the loss the next day. I never heard it 
thunder while I was there. All the miners who 
do not work in a placer mine have to stop work 
during the winter on account of both darkness 
and the weather. Alaska is dark for quite 
awhile during the winter, and of course a person 
cannot work in a mine that is not under the 
ground. A mine under the gound is dark all 
the time and therefore requires an artificial light, 
and for that reason it makes no difference 
whether it is night or day, wet, dry, hot or cold. 
It would be bad policy for an unhealthy person 
to go to that country, as he would have to go 
with wet feet all the time and sleep in wet clothes 
at night." 

"How about the food?" 

"Oh, the food that one has to endure is not 
of the best. It consists mainly of slap-jacks, fat 
meat, and beans all the year round. Now and 
then a person gets in a district where there is 
plenty of game, such as bear, fish, ptarmigan and 
deer. Any one expecting to go there for a good 
time will be badly disappointed. Of course, I 
believe there is gold there and plenty of it." 



246 Klondike. 

Mr. Eouilliard^ a returned French-Canadian, 
does not think there is any nceessity for suffer- 
ing from cold in Alaska. He says Alaska is a 
good, healthy, climate, and there will be more 
trouble from getting sufficient supplies of food 
than danger of freezing. He says it is not 
true that the work will have to be suspended 
from September to May on account of the cold 
weather. During that time surface mining will 
have to be suspended, but underground work 
can be carried on as well as at any time. 

To a reporter. Inspector Strickland spoke at 
length of the country that is causing such a 
sensation. Eegarding the best route to reach 
the country, he said that he would advise a poor 
man to go by Dyea and the Chilkoot Pass. He 
would not advise any one to start later than 
August 1, as no one would have time to pack 
the amount of provisions that he would need 
over the summit. Before he could do it the 
river would be frozen up. Last year it froze by 
the first of October, but it does not generally 
freeze until the middle of October. It is hard 
to get into the country, and any one who goes 
there must be prepared to go through some 
rough experiences. There is plenty of gold, but 
it is not lying around waiting for any one to pick 
it up. It is gotten only by hard work. 

Mrs. Gage, late of Dawson City, says: 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 247 

"I am almost sure I shall return to the Yukon 
Valley to spend the winter. The last boat sails 
from Seattle, August 28. The only thing to 
keep me is that I can't take my baby on account 
of the cold. As for myself, I am not afraid, for 
it is such a dry cold that one hardly feels it. 
Women are always safe in the Yukon. Although 
beer and wine are sold the men are rarely dis- 
orderly." Mrs. Gage is young and not of large 
stature. She says her health was never better 
than when in Alaska. 

"It is wrong for any one to attempt a trip to 
the gold country in winter. The trip is a bad 
enough one in other seasons, but it is practically 
impossible during the winter. I only know of 
three or four persons who have attempted the 
journey in winter and were successful. 

"In summer it takes about thirty days to reach 
the Klondike. From the coast to the summit of 
Chilkoot Pass is very severe traveling, and even 
after that is passed, diflScult and dangerous work 
is still in store for the traveler. The best time 
to go is in the spring, starting about March 1; 
but travelers must be careful to take in sufficient 
provisions to last a year." 

The Yukon last year was frozen hard and fast 
on September 28. The Alaska Commercial 
Company never contracts to carry any one through 
who leaves Seattle after July 30. The first ice 



248 Klondike. 

that forms goes out, filling the river with float- 
ing cakes that are dangerous to craft stemming 
the current. Later the river freezes over solid 
to its mouth. The condition of a party, ice- 
bound, hundreds of miles from home, and unable 
to traverse the rough country to reach its desti- 
nation, would not be pleasant, but the extreme 
cold of the North is not unbearable. Experi- 
enced men travel thousands of miles in the dead 
of winter by dog train and on snowshoes, and 
keep their health. Zero weather on the coast is 
harder to endure than 40 degrees below inland, 
provided the air be calm. 

There is, of course, a great difference between 
the climate on the seaboard and that 2,000 miles 
up the river, but as many will winter on the 
shores of Behring Sea this year, so as to be ready 
to start up with the opening of navigation, the 
following taken from the official records of the 
United States Government Weather Eeports are 
of interest. The extracts are from the report 
of the government weather observer who was 
stationed at St. Michael's Island for years. 
This island is on the coast of Alaska, just north 
of the mouth of the Yukon Eiver, and the 
weather there is warmer than it is in the inte- 
rior, where the gold fields are, because it is 
heated by the sea currents. 

The report states that the average tempera- 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 249 

tnre for four consecutive years was six degrees 
below zero. There are two well-marked seasons — 
the winter of seven months, from October to 
May, and the short summer. In winter occurs 
by far the best weather, because of the long 
periods of beautiful clear days, which are wel- 
comed in spite of the intense cold. The sum- 
mer is disagreeable on account of the large num- 
ber of cold, misty rains and low-hanging cloud 
banks that shut down over the earth like a 
leaden cap. 

In winter darkness comes between three and 
four o'clock in the afternoon. Northerly winds 
prevail. There are many fierce gales in winter, 
filling the air with blinding clouds of snow, and at 
a temperature that is frequently 24 degrees below 
zero. The lowest average temperature in winter is 
20 to 34 degrees below zero. The highest average 
temperature for summer is 35 to 54 degrees above 
zero. Before the fierce gales of winter even the 
hardy fur traders shrink in dread, and frostbites 
are the common results of facing the icy blasts. 
Numbers of natives perish in these storms. On 
July 28, 1878, a foot of snow fell on all the hills 
and mountains along the Alaskan coast, down to 
within 250 feet of the sea beach. There was an- 
other snowfall June 17 and 18, 1880. 

This government report tells of the discourag- 
ing attempts of the weather observers to raise 



250 Klondike. 

garden vegetables. They were stunted by the 
cold, and only the most hardy kinds would grow 
at all. 

William B. Moore, now a resident of Spokane, 
Washington, says: 

"I would not advise any one to attempt the 
trip later than the 15th of August. It is a hard 
country to prospect. The Indians make no 
trails. During the winter they trap for fur, and 
in the summer they live on the river, and fish 
and kill fowl. There are large areas of tundra 
lands which are very tiresome to traverse. Gold, 
however, is found right in these tundra marshes. 

"The chief hardship is the long, tedious, dark 
winter. In midwinter the sun does not rise 
above the horizon, and you have only an hour 
and a half to two hours of twilight. In summer 
the mosquitoes, gnats and flies come in clouds. 
The sunshine is almost perpetual, and the sum- 
mer growth is tropical. In the canyons the tem- 
perature frequently rises to more than 100 in the 
shade, and remains there for days. The growth 
of all kinds of vegetation at this season is pro- 
digious. The thimbleberry stalk is much larger 
than in this country, and the leaves are the size 
of a palm-leaf fan. The vine cranberry is very 
abundant, and the fruit is similar to the culti- 
vated cranberry. The forests are very similar to 
the woods of the Northern States, and firewood 
is generally to be had in abundance." 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 25 i' 



THE OUTFIT. 

Opinions as to the correct thing in outfits 
vary, and several such are given, that the pros- 
pective Ynkoner may choose for himself. A 
Juneau correspondent writes: Everybody who 
plans to go to the Yukon next spring should 
either bring a complete outfit with him or the 
cash to buy it here. He has got to take supplies 
for the trip with him over the pass, whichever 
trail he takes, and he might as well pack the 
year's outfit along. He will save money by 
doing it. 

This is a pretty comfortable and complete out- 
fit and might be cut down a little in some of the 
lighter supplies, but not much. A prospector 
will find use for all of it if he has it. The cost 
of drygoods and clothing is from 75 to 125 per 
cent, more at Forty-Mile than here in Juneau, 
where it is not much more than down below. 

A prospector's supply for one year in the 
Yukon country should consist of about the 
things named in this table, which gives Juneau 
prices compared with the prices at Forty-Mile: 



252 



Klondike. 



Articles. 



u S 



gun 



■2-2 









Flour; 

Sugar, D. G 

Bacon, side 

Bacon, breakfast 

Beans 

Dried apples 

Dried peaches . 

Dried apricots 

Dried prunes 

Eaisins 

Split peas 

Coffee, ground 

Coffee, green 

Tea, common 

Baking powder 

Condensed milk, ^ case 

Corned beef, 1 case 

Cornmeal 

Eolled oats 

Oatmeal 

Rice 

Evaporated potatoes . . . 

Evaporated onions 

Black pepper, ground. , 

Salt 

Mustard, ground 

Allspice, ground 

Cinnamon, ground 

Sage 

Butter, roll 

Camp stove 

Gum boots, C. P 

Gum boots, canvas 

Sleigh 

Totals. 



450 
75 
75 
35 
75 
25 
25 
25 
25 
20 
25 
10 

5 
10 
12 
30 
28 
10 
10 
10 
35 
10 

5 

2 
15 

1 



.08 
.20 
.35 
.50 
.10 
.20 
.30 
.30 
.30 
.25 
.15 
.40 
.50 
.75 
1.00 



3i 

5 

5 

7i 
25 
50 
50 

40 
25 
50 
35 
40 



.15 
.15 
.15 
.15 
.40 

1.00 

1.00 
.10 

1.00 
.50 
.75 
.50 

1.00 



$9.00 

4.12 

7.50 

3.20 

3.62 

2.50 

3.50 

3.50 

3.50 

3.00 

3.00 

3.50 

1.50 

3.50 

6.00 

8.37 

3.75 

.35 

.50 

.50 

3.65 

3.50 

3.50 

1.00 

.37 

.40 

.35 

.50 

.35 

6.00 

5.50 

6.50 

5.50 

8.00 



$36.00 

15.00 

26.25 

12.50 

7.50 

5.00 

7.50 

7.50 

7.50 

5.00 

3.75 

4.00 

2.50 

7.50 

12.00 

10.00 

6.00 

1.50 

1.50 

1.50 

5.25 

4.00 

5.00 

2.00 

1.50 

1.00 

.50 

.75 

.50 

15.00 

15.00 

13.00 

10.00 

16.00 



1,133 



$107.70 



$380.50 



A Momual for Gold Seekers. 253 

Miners who go in with outfits from here usually 
employ Indians to pack their supplies over the 
pass. This costs from $13 to $14 a hundred over 
the Dyea route, and the distance is about twenty- 
seven miles. After that the miners must drag 
their own stuff. The best time to go in is before 
the snow melts, which it does about the middle 
of April usually. After the summit is passed, 
if the trip is made before the snow goes off, it 
often happens that great distances can be made 
by rigging sails on the sleds. It takes a little 
more than thirty days to get from Juneau to 
Forty-Mile, but a man wants to know how to 
handle a boat before he tries to go down the 
rivers alone after the ice goes out. The current 
is swift and there are lots of rocks and dangerous 
passages. 

The following are necessary articles of a 
woman's outfit: One medicine case filled on the 
advice of a good physician; two pairs of extra 
heavy all-wool blankets; one small pillow; one 
fur robe; one warm shawl; one fur coat, easy 
fitting; three warm woolen dresses, with com- 
fortable bodices and skirts knee length — flannel- 
lined preferable; three pairs of knickers or 
bloomers to match the dresses; three suits of 
heavy all-wool underwear; three warm flannel 
night-dresses; four pairs of knitted woolen stock- 
ings; one pair of rubber boots; three gingham 



254: Klondike. 

aprons that reach from neck to knees; small roll 
of flannel for insoles, wrapping the feet and 
bandages; a sewing kit; such toilet articles as 
are absolutely necessary, including some skin 
unguent to protect the face from the icy cold; 
two light blouses or shirt waists for summer 
wear; one oilskin blanket to wrap her efEects in; 
one fur cap; two pairs of fur gloves; two pairs of 
fur seal moccasins; two pairs of mukluks — wet 
weather moccasins. 

She wears what she pleases e7i route to Juneau 
or St. Michael, and when she makes her start 
for the diggings she lays aside her civilized 
traveling garb, including shoes and stays, until 
she comes out. Instead of carrying the fur 
robe, fur coat and rubber boots along, she can 
get them on entering Alaska, but the experi- 
enced ones say take them along. The natives 
make a fur coat with hood attached called a 
"parki," but it is clumsy for a white woman to 
wear who has been accustomed to fitted gar- 
ments. Leggings and shoes are not so safe nor 
desirable as the moccasins. A trunk is not the 
thing to transport baggage in. It is much bet- 
ter in a pack, with the oilskin cover well tied on. 

The things to add that are useful but not ab- 
solutely necessary are choice tea, coffee, cocoa, 
and the smaller, lighter luxuries of civilization 
that purse permits and appetite craves. It costs 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 255 

just as much for portage on reading matter as 
for the necessities of life, and consequently after 
making out a list of what you'd like to have, it 
is wise to cut it down to what you can't possibly 
struggle along without. 

It's astonishing how little people can com- 
fortably get along with when they try. 

From almost every town within a radius of 
200 miles, horses and large dogs are being hur- 
ried to Tacoma and Seattle for shipment to 
Alaska. Cayuses that could not be sold for $G 
and $8 each are now worth 820 to 830. Good 
draft horses are too valuable to ship, and would 
not be as good for packing outfits up the Chilkoot 
and White Passes from Dyea and Skagaway as the 
nimble and wiry ponies. Packers now get 25 
cents a pound for carrying outfits from Dyea 
fourteen miles to Sheep Camp. The last two 
miles to the summit is so steep that horses can 
only get over light and the goods are carried the 
balance of the way by Indians, who are now 
charging fabulous prices from Sheep Camp to 
Lake Lindermann. 

The freight on horses to Dyea is 822.50 each, 
and their owners must also pay 811 a ton on 
enough feed to last while they remain. On the 
approach of cold weather many horses will be 
taken over to Lake Bennett, killed and frozen 
and sold for dog meat. In March another big 



256 Klondike. 

army of horses will go north to pack for the^ 
10,000 prospectors who are expected to march 
over the passes in March, April and May. 

The current price of good dogs runs from $25 
to $125. Old Yukoners will not take Puget 
Sound dogs, claiming that they are so thin-haired 
that the arctic winter will kill them. Some 
hardy dogs from Montana and Dakota are being 
taken in, but even they take a back seat to the 
Yukon canines, which are said to be a cross be- 
tween the Esquimo dog and the timber wolf. 
It costs 15 to take a dog to Dyea. 

The greatest demand for any particular thing 
is for boats. People, to save time in getting 
down the river, should take their boats with 
them. A half-dozen carpenters and planing mill 
establishments have caught the idea, and are 
working on the Pacific Coast night and day 
turning out knockdown boats. One that will 
carry a ton costs $18, and weighs about 200 
pounds. It is taken apart with no pieces more 
than six or seven feet long, and packed for ship- 
ping. The demand is so good for these boats 
that the builders are several days behind with 
their orders. The principal objection to them 
is that the Indians and packers dislike to con- 
tract to carry them over the mountains on ac- 
count of their awkward shape. One builder has 
now worked out a model for a galvanized iron 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 257 

boat that can be carried in sections fitting to- 
gether like a "nest" of custard dishes, and can 
be put together with small bolts. As a sugges- 
tion to those going from the East, a canvas fold- 
ing boat that will carry two tons and is con- 
structed on good lines would be very available 
for the Yukon. A keel, mast, and some addi- 
tional bracing could be added after reaching the 
interior. 

According to one returned miner the following 
would make a good outfit: Bacon, 200 pounds; 
flour, 800 pounds; assorted dried fruits, 150 
pounds; cornmeal, 200 pounds; rice, 50 pounds; 
coffee, parched, 75 pounds; tea, 40 pounds; 
sugar, 75 pounds; beans, 150 pounds; condensed 
milk, 1 case; assortment of evaporated vegetables 
and meats; 2 suits of corduroy; 3 pairs rubber 
boots; 3 pairs heavy shoes; 2 dozen heavy woolen 
socks; 1-2 dozen woolen mitts; 3 pairs woolen 
gloves; 3 suits of heavy underwear; 2 hats; 2 suits 
of mackinaw; 4 heavy woolen shirts; 1 heavy 
coat; 3 pairs of heavy woolen blankets. 

This outfit will cost about $175. Transportation 
via steamer, to Klondike costs $150, or via Juneau 
and Dyea $40. If by the latter route, the car- 
riage from salt water to Lake Lindermann must 
be added; also, boat at Lake Lindermann, $50; 
miscellaneous $25. Conservatively, this is a fair 
estimate of the requirements of a man who ex- 



258 Klondike. 

pects to remain in the Yukon for 18 months. 
There are several incidental expenses which 
might be incurred, or the amount of supplies 
might be curtailed to a slight extent. 

One of the most modest calculations of an old 
hand who would "travel light," reads thus: 

"I would pack but very little if I had no 
money to pay my way. Here is what I would 
take, and it will be found amply sufficient: 
Twenty pounds of British ship's biscuit, which 
may be secured at any first class grocery; 6 
pounds of sugar in good strong cotton bags of 
three ponnds each, for they can be better packed 
in a bundle; 2 pounds of coffee and 2 pounds 
of tea; a dozen tin boxes of wax matches; a 
bar of soap; a tin pail to boil tea or coffee in, 
and to use the lid for drinking out of; one tin of 
salt and pepper; 1 ax; 2 pairs of heavy blue 
woolen blankets; two pairs of heavy miners' 
boots; 2 suits of heavy underwear; a suit of 
strong oilskin, such as sailors wear; strong heavy 
socks and gloves; a pair of smoked glasses; a 
good heavy revolver; 2 towels; a tent 10 by 8 ft.; 
1 pick and shovel, and if possible, a heavy 
jndia-rubber sleeping bag. There's the whole 
of my kit. 

"The rope you would use in binding the out- 
fit would serve also for carrying it over your 
shoulders, and on arrival at destination be used 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 259 

in erecting your tent. The idea of carrying, or 
rather packing flour, bacon, cornmeal, rice, oat- 
meal, and other such luxuries, as well as numer- 
ous culinary utensils, building tools and super- 
fluous clothing, is all nonsense. 

"The journey to the frozen North is not nearly 
so hard as some people imagine, but for all that 
I would not advise an unpractical man to go 
there until next spring. A seasoned miner can go 
there at any time, but the green hand will find 
it a holy terror before he has tramped the first 
fifty miles." 

There is a strong probability that there will 
be a short allowance of provisions in the Yukon 
the coming winter, even if there is no actual 
suffering from the want of food, and every one 
going in will do well to take sufficient supplies 
to last until next summer, says the Juneau, 
Alaska, Searchlight. Fully 2,500 people have 
gone in this year over the Chilkoot Pass, and 200 
or 300 will go up the river on steamers. To say 
there are 5,000 people now in the Yukon Valley is 
a conservative estimate, and if all these decide to 
winter there it is doubtful if the trading com- 
panies can get in provisions enough to last 
through the winter. If it is clearly seen that 
there will be a shortage the miners will have to 
take matters in hand and make all those not 
having a winter outfit go down the river. There 



260 Klondike. 

is no higher law than necessity, and it is better 
that some should leave the country, however un- 
willingly they may go, than that all should suffer 
from hunger. The companies will do their best 
to supply the increased demand made upon them, 
and if the river should not freeze up until late 
they may be able to get up an abundance of sup- 
plies for every one, but those going in have to 
take chances unless they take a good outfit with 
them. Some have the gold fever so badly that 
they are willing to run any risks; to take the 
most desperate chances. They start with barely 
enough supplies to reach Klondike, and no money 
to buy more, even if there is plenty to be had on 
their arrival. They expect to go to work at once 
for wages, but possibly before they can earn 
enough to buy a winter's outfit everything will 
be sold to those who have cash. Some whose 
means are very limited are trying to make every 
dollar buy as much of life-sustaining food as pos- 
sible, and the ingenuity in this direction is some- 
thing fearful to those who like to indulge their 
stomachs a little. Here is a list of supplies 
which one John Doyle, better known as "Biddy," 
has figured out will last him eight months: 

"Four hundred pounds of pilot bread, $8; 50 
pounds of salt pork, 14; 2 gallons of molasses, 
$1; 2 gallons of vinegar, 50 cents; 100 pounds of 
split peas, 15; 20 pounds of salt, 20 cents; Ipair 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 261 

of gum boots, $6.50; 1 pair of shoes, $4.50; 
total $29.70. His old clothes are good enough, 
he thinks, and he has blankets. Tent and stove 
he says he can get along without; he can broil 
his pork over a camp fire, and one small kettle to 
cook his peas will be all the cooking utensils he 
will need." To prevent scurvy boiled moss will 
be sufficient, besides proving nourishing. That 
this kind of diet would sustain life is certain, 
but how many would be willing to put up with 
it? We would advise none to try it. 

Life in the Yukon, even when viewed at its 
best, presents hardships enough, the winter's 
fearful cold, the summer's pest of mosquitoes, 
the long, weary tramps, the hard work — these 
are enough, even with the best provisions, warm 
blankets, comfortable houses, good fires and 
something to give light during the long winter 
nights. It is impossible to emphasize too 
strongly the necessity of every one's taking an 
abundance of the best food to last "him until an- 
other summer, and a good camp outfit. If you 
can't get these things it is safer to wait until 
you can save up enough to buy them. 

The following itemized bill sold recently by a 
Chicago house furnishes the best idea of the 
make-up of a comparatively cheap outfit, although 
every article composing it is of first-class quality: 

"Three suits of heavy woolen underwear at 



262 Klondike. 

14.50, 113.50; 4 pairs heavy stockings at 40 cents, 
il.60; 2 pairs German stockings, at 11.15, 
12.30; 1 pair hunting stockings, 11.25; 1 heavy 
sweater, 14.50; 1 lighter sweater, $2.35; Heather, 
fur-lined coat, short, $7; 1 pair jeans trousers, 
lined with flannel, $3; 1 mackinaw coat, 13; 1 
pair mackinaw trousers, 82.50; 1 suit buckskin 
underwear, 112; 1 pair hip rubber boats, $5.25; 
1 pair heavy miner's boots, $5; 1 pair heavy over- 
shoes, $2.10; 4 blankets at $2.40, $9.60; 1 pair 
leather-lined mitts, $1.20, 1 pair woolen mitts, 
$1; 1 sleeping bag, $12.50; 1 sleeping cap, 75 
cents; 4 canvas carrying bags, $2; tools, includ- 
ing two miner's pans, picks, shovels, axes, saw, 
file, knife, $7.32; total, $99.72." 

This is one of the cheapest of the outfits, and 
does not include firearms and numerous other 
things found in most of the bills. One of the 
common purchases is a horsehide suit, costing 
$17. Many also buy a long coonskin coat, cost- 
ing $32. Another important item not included 
is that of provisions, some men taking $40 to 
$50 worth, composed for the greater part of two- 
ounce bottles of beef extract, canned soups, etc., 
and tea and coffee. With this usually goes a 
small cooking outfit, costing $5.50. The princi- 
pal purpose in taking these things is for emer- 
gencies when other provisions are not available. 

The supplies taken in by one experienced 
miner were as follows: 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 263 

*SSeventy-five pounds granulated sugar, $4.13; 
1 dozen packages beef extract, $4.75; 10 pounds 
evaporated onions, $5; 50 pounds evaporated 
potatoes, $9.50; 50 pounds evaporated peaches, 
$1.75; 10 pounds evaporated currants, 70 cents; 
25 pounds salt, 25 cents; 25 pounds rolled oats, 
63 cents; 50 pounds cornmeal, $1; 200 pounds 
breakfast bacon, $22; 50 pounds rice, $2.50; 1 
pound cayenne pepper, 35 cents; 1 pound black 
pepper, 25 cents; 1 case condensed milk, $7; 10 
sacks flour, $10; 1 bottle vinegar, 50 cents; 15 
pounds dried beef, $2.70; 1 case baking powder, 
$5; 1 pound mustard, 25 cents; 1 box candles, 
11.50; 1 can matches, 75 cents; 20 bars soap, 75 
cents; crackers, $5.50; castile soap, 25 cents; 1 
dozen small cheeses, $1; 25 pounds spaghetti, 
$2.75; 15 pounds coffee, $3.75; 3 pounds tea, 
$1.20; 100 pounds beans, $2; 25 pounds pitted 
plums, $1.75; total cost of provisions at Seattle, 
$102.83." 

This man believed that these supplies will last 
him for twelve months. 

Some gleanings that, though like the words of 
a dictionary, rather disjointed, nevertheless con- 
tain valuable hints, are appended: 

"The Siwash dogs, which we used in drawing 
loads of provisions, resemble very much a Scotch 
collie, and are very lean, lank and wolfish-look- 
ing. They are, neverthless, very strong, and 
gifted with wonderful endurance. 



264 " Klondike. 

"A Seattle firm is preparing for the shipment 
of a large amount of flour into the country. The 
flour has to be prepared to make the long and 
hard trip. The flour goes in quarter barrels of 
fifty-pound sacks, two of which are sewed 
together in burlaps for protection. Most of the 
flour will go into the mining country by way of 
Juneau and the Ohilkoot Pass, but this particular 
shipment will go by the steamer Excelsior to St. 
Michael. 

"Both of us were afraid of the ice, though I 
had been raised among it in Siberia. We did 
not suffer from the cold a great deal, however. 
Furs may be good when you are traveling, but 
when you are prospecting the great soft blanket 
is the thing you want. Everything necessary for 
equipment can be got at Juneau or Dawson City. 
I am fully convinced that $500 will fit a man out 
in all he wants. He can spend 1250 in Juneau 
and take the balance for ammunition and provi- 
sions. 

"We arrived in this beautiful city (Dawson) 
consisting of tents and shacks, the first day of 
June about three o'clock. We found everybody 
out of grub, sold some bacon for $1 a pound, 
butter $2 per pound; could have sold all the pro- 
visions we had at the same rates, but only let a 
little go. However, the boat came in to-day with 
a large amount of supplies, so food will be some- 
what cheaper. 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 265 

"The gaunt and hungry miners come to visit 
you. They offer you a dollar for a needle and 
thread. They offer you $25 for a pair of rubber 
boots. They are rich — these grizzled and whis- 
kered fellows — but they are ragged and hungry. 

"You are not yet through buying. You must 
have fur gloves. They will cost you $3. You 
must have mukluks, or mud moccasins, for 
which you pay $4. These are made of fur seal, 
with the fur inside. They come to the knee or 
all the way up to the thigh, as you may choose. 
Get snow shoes of the Ingalik pattern for 110 a 
pair, and at last you are ready. If you are not 
an experienced dog driver woe be unto you. All 
you can do is to trust in Providence and follow 
the leader. This you prepare to do. 

"A Middletown, New York, firm that has been 
engaged in manufacturing gold dust bags of 
sheepskin for Californian customers, is working 
■with a double force on account of telegraphic 
orders received since the Klondike discovery. 

"Fancy prices were paid for dogs by those who 
were able to purchase, and as high as $175 and 
even $200 were paid for good dogs. Almost any 
kind of a dog was worth $50 and $75 each. 

"If he should go on without a miner's kit and 
proper supplies the scarcity of food and the ex- 
orbitant prices would take the rest, and he would 
find himself working for $15 a day in Klondike 
and paying $4 for board. 



266 Klondike. 

''A bag company is also at work on an order 
for 1^600 canvas bags, to be had especially for the 
carrying of clothing and provisions. They are 
also securing a large number of tents. The 
woolen mills at Salem, Oregon City and Albany, 
Oregon, have all increased their forces to meet 
the demand for heavy woolen goods. 

"The raw turnips and even potatoes were 
eagerly sought, and as a crate of onions came 
from the Portland there was almost a riot, so 
strong was the desire for them. Several of the 
lucky miners went aboard the Portland and 
there gave the steward 130 for a dinner of seven 
plates. I ate at the same table, though not as 
their guest, as my dinner was paid for. The 
men ate like famished wolves, and as the various 
courses were brought on, laughed like pleased 
children. Most of the sixty passengers aboard 
the Weare, which started from winter quarters 
after the ice melted in the Yukon, had been liv- 
ing on beans, bacon and bread, or hard tack, for 
from six months to a year; some longer. The 
little agency store at St. Michael was besieged 
for bottled cider, canned pineapples, apricots, 
cherries, or anything tart, and at a dollar a bot- 
tle cider went like gumdrops at a Sunday-school 
picnic." 

The matter of clothing must be left to individ- 
ual taste, needs and means. But the miners 




Yukon Miners in Winter Garb.— Page 267. 



\ 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 267 

generally adopt the native costume. The boots, 
usually made by the coast Indians, are of several 
varieties. The water-boot is of seal and walrus 
skin, while the dry weather or winter boot is of 
all varieties of style and material. The more ex- 
pensive have fur-trimmed legs, elaborately de- 
signed. They cost from I'? to 85 a pair. Trous- 
ers are often made of Siberian fawn skin, and 
the skin of the marmot or ground squirrel. The 
parka, or upper garment, is usually of marmot 
skins, trimmed with wolverine around the hood 
and lower edge, the long hair from the sides of 
the wolverine being used for the hood. This 
hair is sometimes five or six inches in length and 
is useful in protecting the face of the wearer. 
Good, warm flannels can be worn under tlie 
parka, and the whole outfit will weigh less than 
the ordinary clothes worn in a country where the 
weather gets down to zero. The parka is almost 
cold proof. But it is exjjensive, ranging in price 
from $25 to SIOO. Blankets and fur robes are 
used for bedding. Lynx skins make the best 
robes. Good ones cost $100. But cheaper robes 
can be made of the skins of bear, mink, red fox, 
and the arctic hare. The skins of the latter 
animal make warm socks to be worn with the 
skin boots. 

Prices in Dawson City are fairly representative 
of the amounts charged for provisions and articles 



268 Klondike. 

of wear, on the Yukon, and the following list 
will give interesting information on this subject. 
These were the ruling prices when the miners 
left Dawson City to return with their immense 
wealth, and entrance their neighbors with the 
recital of the story of their success: 

"Flour, per 100 pounds, 812; moose ham, per 
pound, II; caribou meat, per pound, 65 cents; 
beans, per pound, 10 cents; rice, per pound, 25 
cents; sugar, per pound, 25 cents; bacon, 
per pound, 40 cents; butter, per roll, $1.50, 
eggs, per dozen, $1.50 to 12; salmon, each, 
$1, to 11.50; potatoes, per pound, 25 cents; 
turnips, per pound, 15 cents; tea, per pound, $1; 
coffee, per pound, 50 cents; dried fruits, per 
pound, 35 cents; canned fruits, 50 cents; canned 
meats, 75 cents; Lemons, each, 20 cents; Oranges, 
each, 50 cents; tobacco, per pound, $1.50; 
liquors, per drink, 50 cents; shovels, 82.50; 
picks, $5; coal oil, per gallon, 81; overalls, $1,50; 
underwear, per suit, 85 to 87.50; shoes, $5; rub- 
ber boots, 810 to $15." 

Although most of the Klondikers are returning 
home with plenty of gold, they all advise and 
urge people who contemplate going to the 
Yukon not to think of taking in less than one 
ton of grub, and plenty of clothes. While it is a 
poor man's country, yet the hardships and priva- 
tions to be encountered by inexperienced persons 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 269 

unused to frontier life are certain to result in 
much suffering during the winter. They should 
go prepared with at least a year's supplies. 

One old miner recommends: "Get plenty of 
staples and get the best clothes obtainable." 
This authority drew attention to the fact that 
the miner should 'follow the Shakespearian 
instruction and put money in his purse. 
Many small articles will be needed at Dawson 
City, and if the prospector goes by way of Juneau, 
there are guides to pay and a sled and dogs to 
hire. Some of the clothes taken will last longer 
than a year, but the quantity fit for service at 
the end of that time will be very limited. 

Yet another informant urges: "One should 
buy these things in Juneau, and he should start 
out with something like the following: 

"Four hundred pounds of flour, 100 pounds of 
beans, 100 pounds of bacon, 100 pounds of sugar, 
10 pounds of tea, 30 pounds of coffee, 150 
pounds of mixed fruit, salt, pepper, and cooking 
utensils. The whole outfit can be purchased, 
well, within $90. The cost of conveying this 
stock of provisions to the headwaters of Lake 
Lindermann will average about 115 per hundred, 
(Now much higher — Ed.), but even that makes it 
considerably cheaper than the same goods could be 
purchased in the mining camp. I understand 
that the Commercial Company has decided to 



2Y0 Klondike. 

carry freight for the travelers next season. If 
this is true, the cost to the prospector will be 
materially lessened." 

The tents recently provided by the United 
States Quartermaster's Department for the use 
of the troops ordered to Alaska are well adapted 
for comfort even in such a cold country as 
Alaska. The body of the tent is made of 12- 
ounce army standard duck, and is in the shape 
of a conical wall tent, 16 feet 5 inches in diame- 
ter, with the wall 3 feet high. The special fea- 
ture of the new tent is the stove and pipe, the 
two together being so constructed as to form the 
center pole of the tent. The new arrangement 
will, it is claimed, keep the temperature at a 
comfortable point. 

Everybody who has been to the Klondike by way 
of the Juneau route and down the Yukon has 
something to say of the difficulties encountered 
in building suitable boats from the small timber 
available. The trees grow very closely together 
and do not attain good size. Sometimes it is 
necessary to go ten or fifteen miles inland before 
suitable trees are found, and then the logs must 
be laboriously whipsawed and the lumber carried 
to the lakeside. Many have concluded that the 
best solution of the boat-building problem is to 
have their boats made elsewhere. One builder 
has five orders from persons going to the Klon- 



A Manual for Gold SeeJcers. 271 

dike for boats in which to go down the river. 
One boat in his shop is twenty feet over all, five 
feet beam, and two feet deep, with double ends 
and a flat bottom. She is built of seasoned 
spruce, and the knees are natural crooks. The 
boat is put together with screws, so that it can 
be takeji apart for transportation and readily put 
together when the lake and river are reached. 
Such a boat costs from S40 to 860, about one-third 
what inferior boats would cost on the Yukon, 
and has a capacity of two tons. 

Another boat is described as: "Our boat was 
built like a John boat, 24 feet long and 5^ feet 
wide." 

A Montana man wrote back to a relative: "In 
addition to a strong constitution there are many 
other things to be taken into consideration be- 
fore venturing upon the trip. One should have 
a practical knowledge of placer mining, where to 
look for gold, and once found, how to save it. 
Theorists may be all right in some countries, but 
in the Yukon, where the warm season does not 
average over twelve weeks in the year, experience 
will be found to be a very expensive teacher. A 
bookkeeper or a farmer might go to this modern 
El Dorado and find an extraordinarily valuable 
claim, but the old-time prospector, who knows 
colors when he sees them, would stand ninety-nine 
chances to the former's one of making a rich 
gtrike. 



272 Klondike. 

''Another essential is a sufficient amount of 
hard cash in your pocket to carry you over a 
season in the event of your not being able to 
locate a good claim the first summer. No one 
should start for the Yukon country with less 
than $300 in cash after he has purchased his out- 
fit. Should you be so fortunate as to find a good 
claim the first season it is likely that you would 
not be able to realize from it immediately. 
Nearly all of the summer claims require drainage 
before they can be worked, and that is both 
tedious and expensive. On the winter claims 
the pay gravel is taken out by drifting and then 
allowed to lie on the bank until the following 
summer before the gold can be washed out. The 
necessity of having sufficient funds to carry you 
over a season is therefore very apparent. The 
trading companies operating the stores on the 
Yukon will not extend credit, as all their goods 
find a ready sale at spot cash. If you have not 
the money to buy a winter's outfit in the event 
of a profitless season, you will have to subsist on 
a straight diet of flour, providing you are lucky 
enough to have the flour. Don't go to the 
Yukon broke or with only a few dollars, or you 
may have abundant reasons to regret it. 

"After having decided to tempt fortune in 
the Yukon country, the first consideration is your 
outfit, where to get it and what it should consist 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 273 

of. Nothing must be taken that is superfluous 
or it will probably be thrown away before the 
summit of the mountains is crossed. The outfit 
should consist only of your bedding, provisions, 
and tools for mining and boat building. Those 
who have the money to invest frequently take in 
a two years' supply of provisions and say it is 
profitable for them to do so. No one should 
leave Juneau without at least a six months' sup- 
ply, and the more you can take the better you 
will be off when you arrive at your destination. 
An outfit of fresh provisions will always find a 
ready sale at high prices at the mines, and there 
is never any danger of taking in too much. 
What constitutes an ideal outfit depends much 
upon one's individual taste, and the length of 
his purse. For those content with the necessi- 
ties of life the following may serve as an example 
of the provisions one man will consume in one 
month: Flour, 35 pounds; dessicated vegeta- 
bles, 2 pounds; dried fruit, 5 pounds; oatmeal, 
5 pounds; coffee, 3 pounds; bacon, 12 pounds; 
beans, 6 pounds; sugar, 5 pounds; tea, 1 pound; 
4 cans condensed milk; salt and pepper, matches 
and mustard. 

"The outfit sufficient to last one man six 
months can be procured in Juneau for about 136, 
with a liberal discount on large orders. By a 
simple process of multiplication the amount nee- 



274 Klondil-e. 

essary to outfit a party of four to eight persons 
can easily be found. Of tools one should take a 
42-incli steel pick, gold pan, rocker irons, steel 
pike, full spring steel shovel, hand saw, rip saw, 
whip saw, ax, hatchet, hammer, copper nails 
for boat building, two pounds of pitch, two 
pounds of oakum, tent, pocket knife, shotgun, 
and rifle, and 100 feet of half-inch rope. In case 
the boat is purchased, the oakum, pitch and 
copper nails may be omitted from the list. 

''In clothing one should provide himself with 
two or three suits of heavy underwear, woolen 
socks, woolen shirts, one pair of hip rubber boots 
with leather soles, one pair of heavy prospector's 
shoes, a suit of mackinaw clothing, an oilskin 
coat, a sou'wester hat, three pair of the best 
woolen blankets, and one rubber blanket. Snow 
glasses are indispensable, as without them the in- 
tense glare of the sun will quickly produce snow 
blindness. The entire outfit, including the 
articles of wearing apparel named, will cost ap- 
proximately $100 and will weigh about 700 
pounds. The trip should never be attempted 
alone, but should be made in parties of four or 
eight persons each. By so doing all can use the 
same camp outfit, tent and boat, and will not 
only lessen the individual cost of the portion of 
the outfit, but packing and boat building will be 
greatly expedited where there are a number of 
hetnd? to do the work," 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 275 

*'The demand for dogs last winter could not be 
supplied. Dogs are a necessary feature of arctic 
travel, and when a man decided that he wanted 
to go from Circle City to Klondike last winter, 
the first thing he considered was whether or not 
he could get a dog to help pull his outfit through 
th ' snow. It was nothing unusual to see a man 
and a dog harnessed together to a loaded sled, 
both pulling with all their might. It seemed 
strange at first to see dogs, thin-bodied, long- 
haired, woolfish-looking animals, used in the 
place of horses. But they pull well, eat little, 
and sleep out on the cold snow all night, no mat- 
ter if it is 50 or 60 degrees below zero. No horse 
could stand such treatment as these poor dogs 
receive. There are regular "freighters," though ; 
they use dog teams and sleds instead of horses 
and wagons, hitching from six to twelve tough 
dogs to a sled; they pull a heavy load and get 
over the ground ^t a lively pace. One hundred 
pounds to the dog is the rule. 

"The price of dogs last winter doubled, a few 
of the best bringing as high as $150. It was al- 
most impossible to buy one for less than $100, 
no matter how poor he was. Some Indians 
thought it better to rent out their dogs at II or 
more per day. If some man has the Klondike 
fever and has no money to buy or rent a dog, 
a friend who cannot go often furnishes the dog and 



276 Klondike. 

sends him up, the dog-owner thus securing a 
half-interest in the prospect or claim." 

While the miners and prospectors who have 
been to Alaska invariably advise intending gold 
hunters to take an outfit weighing from 1,500 
pounds to a ton and a half, it is a fact that very 
few of those who have already departed have 
taken anywhere near the amount advised. What 
the result of this failure to follow che advice of 
those who have had experience in the Yukon 
will be cannot be known until next spring, when 
the icy fetters of the frozen arctic region release 
the prisoners of the winter and give their stories 
to the world. Many of those who are starting 
now are doing so with an entire capital of not 
over $300, whereas the returning miners advise 
a man not to think of going with less than $500 
to $750, or even $1,000. However, conditions 
of transportation and supply are changing almost 
daily, and the Yukoners are relying on improved 
facilities which the old ones knew nothing of. 

Many people ask what a Yukon stove is. To 
save weight the stoves for that country have 
been made of sheet-iron. They are very simple, 
being just a box, with oven at the back and a 
telescope pipe. Some have a drum above the 
stove for baking. The iron barrels or tanks in 
which coal oil is taken into the country are made 
into stoves for the stores and saloons. 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 277 

It is a very important matter to have the sup- 
plies properly packed to guard against damage 
by water and rough handling. The packs are 
made up to weigh about seventy-five pounds. 
First they are put in canvas bags, and then are 
wrapped securely in oilcloth. Should they be 
exposed to rain, dropped in wet snow or even 
immersed for a short time in the river, practi- 
cally no damage will result. Any of those about 
to leave for Klondike who have packed carelessly 
would do well to have their outfits repacked at 
Juneau. 

Robert Krook, a returned Swedish Klondike 
miner, says that Esquimo dogs will draw 200 
pounds each on a sled, so that six dogs will draw 
a year's supplies for one man. He, however, 
puts in the proviso that the sleds should not 
have iron runners, because the snow sticks to 
the iron and increases the friction so much that 
the dogs cannot haul more than 100 pounds 
apiece. With brass runners this drawback is 
obviated. Last winter Esquimo dogs cost from 
$75 to $200 apiece, and he does not think the 
price will increase materially, because Avhen the 
demand is known the supply from other parts of 
Alaska will be plentiful at Dyea, and other points 
along the Yukon. Sometimes the feet of the 
dogs get sore, and then the Indians fit moccasins 
on them; as soon, however, as the tenderness is 



278 Klondike. 

gone from their feet the dogs will bite and tear 
the moccasins off. Draught dogs need no lines 
to guide them and are very intelligent, learning 
readily to obey a command to turn in any direc- 
tion or to stop. They have to be watched closely, 
as they will attack and devour stores left in their 
way, especially bacon, which must be hung up 
out of their reach. At night when camp is 
pitched, the moment a blanket is thrown upon 
the ground they will run into it and curl up, 
neither cuffs nor kicks sufficing to budge them. 
They lie as close up to the men who. own them as 
possible and the miner cannot wrap himself up 
so close that they won't get under his blanket 
with him. They are human, too, in their disin- 
clination to get out in the morning. 

Where sleds cannot be used the dogs will 
carry fifty pounds apiece in saddlebags slung 
across their backs pannier fashion. Nature has 
fitted these dogs for their work, and other breeds 
are not as serviceable. The latter cannot stand 
the intense cold so well, and though at first they 
will draw the sleds cheerfully, their feet fail 
under the strain, and begin to bleed so freely 
that the dogs are useless. The pads under the 
feet of the Esquimo dogs are of tougher skin. 

Mules and burros are being used between Dyea 
and Lake Lindermann to pack supplies over the 
summit of Chilkoot Pass. There are a few 
Jiorses in the Yukon country. 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 279 

A gentleman who has had a long experience 
with dog teams in the Northwest wrote to the 
London, Ontario, Times : 

"Well, here we are down on the ice, and the 
dogs impatient to start. The sled consists of a 
narrow box four feet long, the front half being 
covered or boxed in, mounted on a floor eight 
feet long resting on runners. In this box the 
passenger sits, wrapped in rabbit skins so that 
he can hardly move, his head and shoulders only 
projecting. In front and behind and on top of 
the box is placed all the luggage, covered with 
canvas and securely lashed, to withstand all the 
jolting and possible upsets, and snow shoes 
within easy reach. 

An important item is the dog whip, terrible to 
the dog if used by a skillful hand, and terrible to 
the user if he be a novice; for he is sure to half 
strangle himself, or to hurt his own face with 
the business end of the lash. The whip I used 
had a handle nine inches long and a lash of thirty 
feet, and it weighed four pounds. The lash was 
of folded and plaited seal hide, and for five feet 
from the handle measured five inches round, 
then for fourteen feet it gradually tapered off, 
ending in a single thong half an inch thick and 
eleven feet long. Wonderful the dexterity with 
which a driver can pick out a dog and almost a 
spot on that dog with this lash. The lash must 



280 Klondike. 

be trailing at full length behind, when a jerk 
and turn of the wrist cause it to fly forward, the 
thick part first, the tapering end continuing the 
motion till it is at full length in front, and the 
lash then making the fur fly from the victim. 
But often it is made to crack over the heads of 
the dogs as a warning. 

"The eleven dogs were harnessed to the frt-nt 
of the sled, each by a separate thong of seal 
hide, all of different lengths, fastened to a light 
canvas harness. The nearest dog was about 
fifteen feet from the sled, and the leader, with 
bells on her, about fifty feet, the thongs thus in- 
creasing in length by about three feet. When 
the going is good the dogs spread out like the 
fingers of a hand, but when the snow is deep 
they fall into each other's tracks in almost single 
file. As they continually cross and recross each 
other, the thongs get gradually plaited almost 
up to the rearmost dog, when a halt is called, 
the dogs are made to lie down, and the driver 
carefully disentangles them, taking care that no 
dog gets away meanwhile. They are guided by 
the voice, using "husky," that is, Esquimo 
words: "Owk," go to the right; "Arrah" to the 
left, and "holt," straight on. But often one 
of the men must run ahead on snowshoes for the 
dogs to follow him." 

The dress adopted by the whalers gives a good 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 281 

idea of what is required on the arctic shores of 
Alaska. Over a suit of flannel underwear, the 
sailor dons a suit of caribou tanned by the Esqui- 
mos, with the fur inside. Then follow sealskin 
trousers, and a sealskin or reindeer ovei'coat, 
having a hood. Woolen mittens with sealskin 
mittens over them protect the hands, while two 
pairs of heavy woolen hose and native skin boots 
coming well up on the thigh keep the feet 
warm. It is best to line the boots with moss, as 
that is a good non-conductor. With such cloth- 
ing a temperature of 60 degrees below zero is en- 
durable. In still weather a man may expose 
himself in safety, but in very cold weather shelter 
must be sought, or all the clothes the traveler 
could put on would not prevent his freezing to 
death. Even the Indians occasionally perish 
when caught far from camp by a sudden storm. 



282 Klondike, 



THE MOUNTED POLICE. 

"That even in the most remote spots in the 
world over which flies the flag of a civilized 
nation there should exist the perfect administra- 
tion of justice and enforced regard for personal 
rights, is one of the triumphs that the nineteenth 
century can boast of as its own," says a writer of 
the San Francisco Clironide, "and no govern- 
ment in the history of the world can lay claim to 
having carried this marvel of executive foresight 
to such a degree of perfection as that of Great 
Britain. The trite saying that 'if you tread on 
an Englishman's toes in the Cannibal Islands 
there will be a warship round the corner next 
morning/ is something more than a jest, and it 
is equally true that, no matter how far removed 
from the seat of government a human being may 
be, if Great Britain owns the soil on which he 
lives and toils, he may rest assured that, to 
whatever country he owes his allegiance, his 
rights will be rigidly protected and his crimes 
swifty punished." 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 2SS 

Here and there among the mass of matter that 
has been v/ritten concerning tlie wonderfnl Klon- 
dike mines, brief allusions have been made i'jO 
the fact that a little body of mounted police hpjS 
been patrolling the district ever since the excite- 
ment began, keeping perfect order, and preserv- 
ing among the constantly swelling populations 
of the various camps as peaceable conditions as 
can be found in the heart of any civilized com- 
munity. 

And in all the speculation concerning the 
future of the locality, its probable immense 
growth, and the fear of starvation, sickness and 
death, no fear has ever been expressed that an}-- 
thing in the nature of lawlessness or crime may 
get th^ upper hand, and run rampant, or that 
property rights and safety of the person will be 
in the least danger. 

Vigilantes are to be unknown in this northern 
and snowbound El Dorado. 

Though the excellent British mining laws, or 
rather laws founded by the Canadians on British 
precedent, are in the main responsible for this 
feeling of security, tlie men who undertake their 
enforcement are, after all, entitled to a great 
share of the credit, for good laws illy enforced 
are worse than useless. The Northwest Mounted 
Police of Canada, a body whose wonderful dis- 
cipline and bravery have given the Dominion 



284 Klondike. 

food for most of her later literature, are the 
officers in whose hands has been placed the carry- 
ing out of these laws, and at this time, there- 
fore, something concerning the organization and 
its internal workings should be of interest. 

The Northwest Mounted Police, whose scarlet 
tunic is the symbol of law and order in the 
Northwest, were organized when Alexander 
Mackenzie was premier, and were one of Sir 
John Macdonald's inspirations, and after his re- 
turn to power in 1878 they always remained 
under his own eye. The nucleus of the force 
was got together at Manitoba in 1873. They 
originally numbered 300, but by their coolness 
and pluck at critical periods they accomplished 
much in reducing the Indians and 'lawless 
whisky traders to a state of order. The police 
built posts and protected the white settlers, and 
the surveyors, who had already begun parceling 
out the country, and exploring the route of the 
Canadian Pacific Eailway. In 1877 nearly the 
whole of the little force was concentrated on the 
southwestern frontier, to watch and check the 
6,000 Sioux who sought refuge in Canada after 
having massacred General Custer and his men 
on the Little Big Horn. It was the mounted 
police that forced these Sioux warriors to sur- 
render themselves to the United States authori- 
ties in 1880-1881. When the desperate half- 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 285 

breeds, under the leadership of the cruel Louis 
Eiel, rose against the authorities in 1885, the 
mounted police took a prominent part in their 
suppres.sion, and the force was then increased to 
1,000 men. Eecently, however, the corps has 
not numbered more than 600 troopers, as times 
were quiet in the Northwest Territories, and 
there was little need of a strong body of men to 
keep order. It is likely that three or four hun- 
dred men will be promptly enlisted for service 
in the Yukon country. 

The Northwest Police, like the Koyal Irish 
Constabulary, on which it was modeled, is in the 
eye of the law a purely civil body. Its officers are 
magistrates; the men are constables. But so far 
as circumstances will allow, its organization in- 
ternal economy, and drill are those of a cavalry 
regiment; and the officers have army rank when 
on active service. 

The affairs of the force are managed by a de- 
partment at Ottawa, under the supervision of a 
cabinet minister. 

The executive command is held by a commis- 
sioner, ranking as lieutenant-colonel. The as- 
sistant commissioner ranks with a major, and 
after three years' service as a lieutenant-colonel. 
Ten superintendents, holding captains' rank, 
command the divisions, with about thirty-five 
inspectors as subalterns, who correspond to lieu- 
tenants. 



286 Klondike. 

The medical staff consists of a surgeon, five 
assistant surgeons, and two veterinary surgeons. 

The rank and file are equal to those of any 
crack corps in the wide world. A recruit must 
be between 23 years and 45 years old; of good 
character; able to read and write English or 
French; active; well built, and of sound consti- 
tution. The physique is very fine, the average 
of the whole thousand being 5 feet 9^ inches 
in height, and 38^ inches around the chest. 
Many scions of English county families are in 
the corps, several of them having titles. A son 
of Lady Hitt is now a trooper at Calgary, North- 
west Territory. He is 6 feet 4 inches tall and as 
powerful as any three average men. Lots of 
young Englishmen who have failed in the far West 
through frozen wheat, or some such usual draw- 
back to prairie farming, have drifted into the 
police, as also many well-brought-up Canadians. 
Men of every calling are to be found in the 
ranks. 

The oflBcers' pay is not large, ranging from 
$2,400 a year down to $1,000 with quarters, 
rations, fuel and service free. 

Of all the hard, tough work to be done in the 
Klondike region the Canadian Mounted Police 
will have the hardest and the toughest. But 
they are used to that, and no one who has seen 
them will doubt that better men for such peril- 
ous service do not exist. 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 287 

The boundary line which these rough riders of 
the plains have to patrol is 2,000 miles long, and 
with the present mining excitement in full swing 
their work will be quadrupled. It is forbidden 
to give "firewater" to the Indians, though saloons 
are licensed in all the mining camps. 

For the past three years there have been but 
twenty policemen on the Yukon, but the force 
in that region has been raised to 200, and the 
whole put under the command of Major Walsh, 
one of the firmest and most experienced officers 
of the force. The advance guard have already 
started, taking with them two rapid-fire Maxim 
guns, each capable of firing 1,200 shots a minute. 

Fifty constables will enforce the customs regu- 
lations at Lake Lindermann, and succor belated 
travelers overtaken by early winter storms. A 
hundred will be posted at Dawson City, and the 
remainder be used as flying patrols, penetrating 
to the most remote diggings, and putting terror 
into the breast of the evildoer. 

''Major Walsh, who has been selected as the 
administrative officer of the Canadian Yukon by 
the Canadian Government, is widely known to 
American miners on the Canadian border line 
and to United States army officers on the fron- 
tier," says the New York Tribune. "His iron- 
gray hair is brushed back from his forehead, and 
he wears a mustache and a dab of hair on his 



288 Klondike. 

chin that emphasizes his square jaw. The major 
is 5 feet 10 inches tall, and weighs about 190 
pounds. He is as straight as an arrow, square- 
shouldered and athletic, and he is admired by 
the men and adored by the women in the regions 
where he is best known. His career in Manitoba 
and the Northwest is replete with stirring inci- 
dents. He is as brave as a lion, a strict discip- 
linarian, tactful and just. Major Walsh pos- 
sesses a fair share of the world's goods, and he is 
generous and warm hearted, true and loyal to 
his friends. 

"It was Major Walsh who organized the North- 
west mounted police, one of the most eflScient 
bodies of men under the flag of Great Britain. 
Fort Walsh was named after him, and his fame 
as a suppressor of lawlessness and his just dealings 
with the Indians made his name a watchword 
among the early settlers in Manitoba and British 
Columbia. If his advice had been taken, there 
would have been no Eiel rebellion in Manitoba. 
When General Miles chased Sitting Bull and his 
Sioux warriors out of the Little Big Horn region 
across the border line into British territory 
Major Walsh rounded them up and received the 
surrender of Sitting Bull. At this time he made 
the acquaintance of General Miles, and they be- 
came fast friends. General Miles is a great ad- 
mirer of Major Walsh, and considers him one of 



A Maniiol for Gold Seekers. 289 

the best organizers as well as one of the most in- 
telligent, far-seeing, astute commanders he has 
ever met. 

"Major Walsh is eminently fitted for the post, 
and every American miner from the Canadian 
boundary line to Mexico feels confident that he 
will receive all that is justly due to him through 
the offices of Major Walsh. The new adminis- 
trator will have three hundred selected men, 
properly armed and equijiped, and several Maxim 
guns as a force under his command. 

"With Major Walsh at the head of the Yukon 
police, the Klondike region on the Canadian side 
of the line will be a region to which the bad men 
who shoot will do well to give a wide berth. 
Major Walsh and his men are familiar with deso- 
late, waste regions from Hudson Bay to the 
Eockies, and from the boundary line of the 
United States to the region of eternal ice and 
snow of the Arctic. The men are inured to 
hardship, and their commander knows just what 
they require for their duties in the Klondike 
region. It is probable that the expedition will 
essay the crossing of the Chilkoot Pass and at- 
tempt to reach the mining regions by November. 
It is safe to say that the expedition under Major 
Walsh's command will be the best equipped that 
has yet started for the new land of gold." 



290 Klondike. 



CANADIAN MINING LAWS. 

The Yukon district is in the Northwest Terri- 
tories, and is therefore subject to Dominion land 
and mineral laws. The Province of British Col- 
umbia extends but to the 60th parallel of north 
latitude, and her laws consequently do not 
apply to the Klondike region. 

Since the news of the recent rich finds have 
reached the outside world the Dominion cabinet 
has met and passed new regulations, making im- 
portant modifications of the rules passed last 
spring. The new regulutions should be atten- 
tively studied by the miner. 

The following are the precise terms of the 
amended regulations governing gold mining in 
the Yukon that appeared in the Official Gazette 
of August 14: 

"That the regulations governing the disposal 
of placer mining claims along the Yukon Eiver 
and its tributaries in the Northwest Territories, 
established by order in Council, be amended by 
providing that entry can only be granted for al- 
ternate claims, known as creek claims, bench 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 291 

claims, bar diggings and dry diggings, and that 
the other alternate claims be reserved for the 
Crown to be disposed of by public auction or in 
such manner as may be decided by the Minister 
of the Interior. 

''That the penalty for trespassing upon a 
claim reserved for the Crown be the immediate 
cancellation by the Gold Commissioner of any 
entry or entries which the person trespassing 
may have obtained, whether by original entry or 
purchase, for a mining claim, and the refusal by 
the Gold Commissioner of the acceptance of any 
application which the person trespassing may 
at any time make for claims; and that in addi- 
tion to such penalty the Mounted Police upon 
a requisition from the Gold Commissioner to 
that effect, may take the necessary steps to eject 
the trespasser. 

"That upon all gold mined on the claims re- 
ferred to in the regulation for the government 
of placer mining along the Yukon Eiver and its 
tributaries, a royalty of 10 per cent, shall be 
levied and collected by officers, to be appointed 
for the purpose, provided that the amount mined 
and taken from a single claim does not exceed 
$500 per week, and in case the amount mined 
and taken from any single claim exceeds $500 
per week there shall be levied and collected a 
royalty of 10 per cent, upon the amount so taken 



292 Klondike. 

out np to 1500, and upon the excess or amount 
taken from any single claim over $500 per week 
there shall be levied and collected a royalty of 
20 per cent.; such royalty to form part of the 
consolidated revenue, and to be accounted for 
by the officers who collect the same in due course. 

"That the times and manner in which such 
royalty shall be collected, and the persons who 
shall collect the same, shall be provided for by 
regulations to be made by the Gold Commis- 
sioner, and that the Gold Commissioner be and is 
hereby given authority to make such regulations 
and rules accordingly. 

"That default in payment of such royalty, if 
continued for ten days after notice has been 
posted upon the claim in respect of which it is 
demanded, or in the vicinity of such claim by 
the Gold Commissioner or his agent, shall be 
followed by the cancellation of the claim. 

"That any attempt to defraud the Crown by 
withholding any part of the revenue thus pro- 
vided for by making false etatements of the 
amount taken out may be punished by cancella- 
tion of the claim in respect of which fraud or 
false statements have been committed or made; 
and that in respect of facts as to such fraud or 
false statement or non-payment of royalty, the 
decision of the Gold Commissioner shall be 
final." 



A Mamial for Gold Seehers. 293 

Another order-in-Council reads as follows: 
"Whereas, clause 7 of the regulations govern- 
ing the dispose! of placer mines on the Yukon 
River and its tributaries in the Northwest Terri- 
tories, established by order-in-Council of the 21st 
of May, 1897, provides that if any person shall 
discover a new mine, and such discovery shall be 
established to the satisfaction of the Gold Com- 
missioner, a claim for 'bar diggings' 750 feet in 
length may be granted; and, whereas, the inten- 
tion was to grant a claim of 750 feet in length to 
the discoverer of any new mine upon a creek or 
river, and not to grant a claim of that length for 
'bar diggings,' His Excellency, by and with the 
advice of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada, 
is pleased to order that clause 7 of the said regu- 
lations governing the disposal of placer mines on 
the Yukon River and its tributaries, shall be and 
the same is hereby amended, so that the above 
grant to a discoverer may apply to creek and 
river claims instead of to 'bar diggings.' " 

The remainder of the mining regulations were 
not amended; they are as follows: 

" 'Bar diggings' shall mean any part of a river 
over which the water extends when the water is 
in its flooded state, and which is not covered at 
low water. Mines on benches shall be known 
as 'bench diggings,' and shall, for the purpose 
of defining the size of such claims, be excepted 



294: Klondike. 

from dry diggings. 'Dry diggings/ shall mean 
any mine over which a river never extends. 
'Miner' shall mean a male or female over the 
age of 18 years, but not under that age. 
'Claim' shall mean the personal right of 
property in a placer mine or diggings during the 
time for which the' grant of such mine or dig- 
gings is made. 'Legal post' shall mean a stake 
standing not less than four feet above the 
ground, and s-quared on four sides at least one 
foot from the top. Both sides so squared shall 
measure at least four inches across the face. It 
shall also mean any stump or tree cut off, 
squared or faced to the above height and size. 
'Close season' shall mean the period of the year 
during which placer mining is generally sus- 
pended, the period to be fixed by the gold com- 
missioner in whose district the claim is situated. 
'Locality' shall mean the territory along a river 
(tributary of the Yukon Eiver and its affluents). 
'Mineral' shall include all minerals whatsoever 
other than coal. 'Placer mining' shall mean 
the working of all forms of deposits excepting 
veins of quartz or other rock in place. 

" 'Bag digging' is a strip of land 100 feet wide 
at high-water mark, and thence extending into 
the river to its lowest water level. 

"The sides of a claim for bag digging shall be 
two parallel lines run as nearly as possible at 



A Mcmual for Gold Seekers. ^95 

right angles to the stream, and shall be marked 
by four legal posts, one at each end of the claim, 
at or about high-water mark; also one at each 
end of the claim at or about the edge of the 
water. One of the posts at high-water mark 
shall be legally marked with the name of the 
miner and the date upon which the claim was 
staked. Dry diggings shall be 100 feet square, 
and shall have placed at each of its four corners 
a legal post, upon one of which shall be legally 
marked the name of the miner and the date 
upon which the claim was staked. 

"Creek and river claims shall be 500 feet long 
measured in the direction of the general course 
of the stream, and shall extend in width from 
base to base of the hill or bench on each side, 
but when the hills or benches are less than 100 
feet apart the claim may be 100 feet in depth. 
The sides of a claim shall be two parallel lines 
run as nearly as possible at right angles to the 
stream. The sides shall be marked with legal 
posts at or about the edge of the water and at the 
rear boundaries of the claim. One of the legal 
posts at the stream shall be legibly marked with 
the name of the miner and the date upon which 
the claim was staked. 

"Bench claims shall be 100 feet square. In 
defining the size of the claims they shall be 
measured horizontally irrespective of inequali- 
ties on the surface of the ground. 



296 Klondike. 

"If any person or persons shall discover a new 
mine and such discovery shall be established to 
the satisfaction of the Gold Commissioner a claim 
for creek and river diggings, 750 feet in length, 
may be granted. A new stratum of auriferous 
earth or gravel situated in a locality where the 
claims are abandoned shall for this purpose be 
deemed a new mine, although the same locality 
shall have been previously worked at a different 
level. 

"The forms of application for a grant for placer 
mining and the grant of the same shall be that 
contained in the form found at the foot of these 
regulations. A claim shall be recorded with the 
Gold Commissioner in whose district it is situated 
within three days after the location thereof if it 
is located within ten miles of the Commissioner's 
office. One extra day shall be allowed for mak- 
ing such record for every additional ten miles or 
fraction thereof. In the event of the absence of 
the Gold Commissioner from his office, entry for 
a claim may be granted by any person whom he 
may appoint to perform his duties in his absence. 

"Entry shall not be granted for a claim which 
has not been staked by the applicant in person 
in the manner specified in these regulations. 
An affidavit that the claim was staked out by 
the applicant shall be embodied in form "H" of 
the schedule hereto. An entry fee of $15 shall 



A Mcmual for Gold Seekers. 297 

be charged for the first year, and an annual fee 
of $100 for each of the following years. This 
provision shall apply to locations for which en- 
tries have already been granted. 

"After the recording of a claim the removal of 
any post by the holder thereof or by any person 
acting in his behalf for the purpose of changing 
the boundaries of his claim shall act as a forfei- 
ture of the claim. The entry of every holder of 
a grant for placer mining must be renewed and 
his receipt relinquished and replaced every year, 
the entry fee being paid each time. No miner 
shall receive a grant of more than one mining 
claim in the same locality, but the same miner 
may hold any number of claims by purchase, and 
any number of miners may unite to work their 
claims in common upon such terms as they may 
arrange, provided such agreement be registered 
with the Gold Commissioner and a fee of $5 be 
paid for each registration. 

"Any miner or miners may sell mortgage or dis- 
pose of his or their claims, provided such dis- 
posal be registered with, and a fee of $2 be paid 
to the Gold Commissioner, who shall thereupon 
give the assignee a certificate in form "J" in the 
schedule hereto. 

"Every miner shall, during the continuance of 
his grant, have the exclusive right of entry upon 
his own claim, for the minerlike working thereof, 



298 KUndihe. 

and the construction of a residence thereon, and 
shall be entitled exclusively to all the proceeds 
realized therefrom; but he shall have no surface 
rights therein; and the Grold Commissioner may 
grant to the holders of adjacent claims such 
right of entry thereon as may be absolutely nec- 
essary for the working of their claim, upon such 
terms as may to him seem reasonable. He may 
also grant permits to miners to cut timber 
thereon for their own use, upon payment of the 
due prescribed by the regulation in that behalf. 
Every miner shall be entitled to the use of so 
much of the water naturally flowing through or 
past his claim, and not already lawfully appro- 
priated, as shall, in the opinion of the Gold Com- 
missioner, be necessary to the due working 
thereof; and shall be entitled to drain his own 
claim free of charge. 

"A claim shall be deemed to be abandoned and 
open to occupation and entry by any person 
when the same shall have remained unworked on 
working days by the grantee thereof or by some 
person in his behalf for the space of seventy-two 
hours, unless sickness or other reasonable cause 
shown to the satisfaction of the Gold Commis- 
sioner, or unless the grantee is absent on leave 
given by the Commissioner, and the gold com- 
missioner upon obtaining evidence satisfactory 
to himself that this provision is not being com- 
plied with may cancel the entry given for a claim. 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 299 

**If the land upon Avhich a claim has been 
located is not the property of the Crown it will 
be necessary for the person who applied for entry 
to furnish proof that he has acquired from the 
owner of the land the surface rights before entry 
can be granted. If the occupier of the lands 
has not received a patent therefor, the purchase 
money of the surface rights must be paid to the 
Crown, and a patent of the surface rights will 
issue to the party who acquired the mining 
rights. The money so collected will either be 
refunded to the occupier of the land, when he 
is entitled to a patent therefor, or will be cred- 
ited to him on account of payment for land. 

"When the party obtaining the mining rights 
to lands cannot make an arrangement with the 
owner or his agent or the occupant thereof for 
the acquisition of the surface rights, it shall be 
lawful for him to give notice to the owner or his 
agent or the occupier to appoint an arbitrator to 
act with another arbitrator named by him, in 
order to award the amount of compensation to 
which the owner or occupant shall be entitled. 
The notice mentioned in this section shall be 
according to a form to be obtained upon api^lica- 
tionfrom the Gold Commissioner for the district 
in which the lands in question lie, and shall, 
when practicable, be personally served upon 
such owner or his agent when known, or occu- 



300 Klondike. 

pant; and after reasonable efforts have been 
made to effect personal service without success, 
then such notice shall be served by leaving it at 
or sending it by registered letter to the last place 
of abode of the owner, agent or occupant, 

''The award of any two arbitrators made in 
writing shall be final and shall be filed with the 
Gold Commissioner for the district in which the 
lands lie. 

"Every claim on the face of any hill and front- 
ing on any natural stream or ravine shall have a 
frontage of 100 feet drawn parallel to the main 
direction thereof, and shall be laid out as nearly 
as possible in the manner heretofore provided. 

*'A new stream of auriferous earth or gravel, 
situated in a locality where the claims are aban- 
doned, shall, for this purpose, be deemed a new 
mine, although the same locality shall have been 
previously worked at a different level; and dry 
diggings discovered in the vicinity of bar dig- 
gings shall be deemed a new mine and vice versd. 
Tunnels and shafts shall be considered as belong- 
ing to the claim for the use of which they are 
constructed, and as abandoned or foreited by the 
abandonment or forfeiture of the claim itself. 

"No person shall be entitled tot he grant of any 
water of any stream for the purpose of selling 
the water to present or future claim-holders on 
any part of such stream. The Minister of the 



A Ma/nual for Gold Seekers. 30i 

Interior may, however, grant such privileges as 
he may deem just, when such ditch is intended 
to work bench or hill claims fronting on any 
such stream, provided that the rights of miners 
then using the water so applied for be protected. 

"The agent in each district shall, under instruc- 
tions from the Minister of the Interior, declare 
the close season in his district. 

*'Each holder of a mining location or of a grant 
for placer mining shall be entitled to be absent 
from his mining location or diggings and to sus- 
pend work thereon during the close season. Any 
miner or miners shall be entitled to leave of 
absence for one year from his or their diggings 
upon proving to the satisfaction of the superin- 
tendent of mines that he or they have expended 
on such diggings in cash, labor or machinery an 
amount of not less than $200 on each of such 
diggings without any return of gold or other 
minerals in reasonable quantities for such ex- 
penditure. 

*'In the event of any breach of any of the above 
regulations by any person holding a grant for 
placer mining from the Crown, the Minister of 
the Interior, or from any duly authorized officer 
of Dominion lands, such right or grant shall be 
absolutely forfeited and the person so offending 
shall be incapable thereafter of acquiring any 
such right or grant unless for special cause it is 
otherwise decided by the Minister of the Interior. 



302 Klondike. 

FORM OF PLACER APPLICATION. 

The following is the form of application for a 
grant for placer mining and the affidavit of the 
applicant: 

I (or we) of hereby apply, under 

the Dominion mining regulations, for a grant of 
a claim for placer mining as defined in said regu- 
lations, in (here describe locality) , and 

I (or we) solemnly swear: 

1. That I (or we) have discovered therein a 
deposit of (here name the metal or mineral). 

2. That I (or we) am (or are) to the best of 
my (or our) knowledge and belief the first dis- 
coverer (or discoverers) of said deposit; or, 

3. That the said claim was previously granted 
to (here name the last grantee), but has re- 
mained unworked by the said grantee for not 
less than . 

4. That I (or we) am (or are) unaware that 
the land is other than vacant Dominion land. 

5. That I (or we) did, on the day of 

mark out on the ground in accordance in every 
particular with the provisions of sub-clause (e) 
of clause eighteen of the said mining regulations, 
the claim for which I (or we) make this applica- 
tion, and that in so doing I (or we) did not en- 
croach on any other claim or mining location 
previously laid out by any other person. 

6. That the said claim contains, as nearly as I 
(or we) could measure or estimate, an area of 

square feet, and that the description (and 

sketch if any) of this date hereto attached. 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 303 

signed by me (or us) sets (or set) forth in detail 
to the best of my (or our) knowledge and ability, 
its position, form and dimensions. 

7. That I (or we) make this application in 
good faith to acquire the claim for the sole pur- 
pose of mining, to be prosecuted by myself (or 
us) or by myself and associates, or by my (or 

our) assigns. Sworn before me ■ at this 

day of 18 — . 

(Signature). 

Form I— Grant for placer mining. 



304: 'Klondihe, 



CUSTOMS EEGULATIONS. 

It is understood that the Dominion Govern- 
ment will not collect duties on personal outfits, 
but merely on articles imported for commercial 
purposes, and on machinery, etc. The power 
exists, however, to levy duty as per following 
schedule: 

Shovels and spades, picks, etc., 25 per cent.; 
horses, 20 per cent.; axes, hatchets and adzes, 
25 per cent.; baking powder, 6 cents per pound; 
bed comforters, 32|- per cent.; blankets, 5 
cents per pound and 25 per cent.; boats' and 
ships' sails, 25 per cent. ; rubber boots, 25 per 
cent. ; boots and shoes, 25 per cent. ; breadstuffs, 
viz., grain, flour, and meal of all kinds, 20 per 
cent.; butter, 4 cents per pound; candles, 28 per 
cent.; cartridges and ammunition, 30 per cent.; 
cheese, 3 cents per pound; cigars and cigarettes, 
$2 per pound and 26 per cent.; clothing — socks, 
10 cents per dozen pairs and 35 per cent.; knitted 
goods of every description, 35 per cent.; ready- 
made, partially of wool, 30 per cent. ; waterproof 
clothing, 35 per cent.; coffee, condensed, 30 per 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 305 

cent.; roasted, 3 cents per pound and 10 per 
cent.; substitutes, 2 cents per pound; extracts, 3 
cents per pound; condensed milk, 3 cents per 
pound; cotton knitted goods, 35 percent.; crow- 
bars, 35 per cent.; cutlery, 35 per cent.; dogs, 20 
per cent. ; drugs, 20 per cent. ; duck, from 20 to 30 
per cent.; earthenware, 30 per cent.; edge tools, 
35 per cent. ; firearms, 20 per cent. ; fishhooks and 
lines, 25 per cent.; flour, wheat, 75 cents per 
barrel; rye, 50 cents per barrel; fruits, dried, 25 
percent.; fruits, prunes, raisins, currants, 1 cent 
per pound; fruits, jellies. Jams, preserves, 3 cents 
per pound; fur caps, muffs, capes, coats, 25 per 
cent.; furniture, 25 per cent.; galvanized iron 
or tinware 30 per cent.; guns, 20 per cent.; 
hardware, 23^ per cent. ; harness and saddlery, 
30 per cent.; jerseys, knitted, 35 per cent.; lard, 
2 cents per pound; linen clothing, 32^^; maps 
and charts, 20 per cent.; meats, canned, 25 per 
cent.; in barrel, 2 cents per pound; oatmeal, 20 
per cent. ; oiled cloth, 30 per cent. ; pipes, 35 per 
cent.; pork, in barrel, 2 cents a pound,; potatoes, 
15 cents a bushel; potted meats, 25 per cent.; 
powder, mining and blasting, 2 cents a pound; 
rice, 1:^ cents a pound; sacks or bags, 20 per 
cent.; sawmills, portable, 30 per cent.; sugar, 
y*o4_ cents a pound; surgical instruments, 15 
per cent.; tobacco, 42 cents per pound and 
12| per cent. 



306 Klondike. 



DISEASES OF THE COUNTRY. 

Before it became easy to get proper food, 
scurvy was very prevalent, on the Yukon, and 
at every cabin could be seen a cottonwood 
pole partly stripped of its bark. The green 
outer bark was scraped ofE and the inner bark 
was steeped to make a tea which was drunk as a 
cure for the disease. It is very bitter and un- 
palatable. Scurvy is not now so common as 
formerly. 

Scurvy, which results from an exclusive dietary 
of cereals and preserved meat, is really a condi- 
tion of acid-intoxication, in the opinion of Dr. 
E. A. Wright, an English pathologist. Fresh 
vegetables and lime-juice are used as remedies, 
but both of them act slowly, and alkaline salts 
— such as carbonate of soda, carbonate of potash 
and a variety of others — ^are shown to be much 
better. 

There is no doubt that a diet consisting largely 
of fat and fresh meat will keep off the scurvy. 
Neither Nansen nor Peary have suffered from 



A Mamial for Gold Seekers. 307 

it, by following this course, whereas well-found 
government expeditions have suffered terribly 
therefrom, through the food being largely of 
canned meats and cereals. Salt beef and pork 
are especially dangerous. Mr. Bruce, formerly 
of the firm of Bruce, Bowne & Co., is going to 
Klondike, and his experience in fitting out whal- 
ers for the Arctic will stand him in good stead 
for his intended trip. One article that his party 
will take along will be lime-juice. The majority 
of the prospectors have overlooked this impor- 
tant article and other anti-scorbutics. According 
to Mr. Bruce there is every need of lime-juice 
and vegetables in the northern latitudes as 
preventatives against scurvy. 

Whatever you do, don't neglect to take along 
a bottle of lime-juice as a safeguard against 
a disease which without some such precaution is 
very apt to manifest its presence after a few 
months of exposure, and rough or limited diet, 
without an adequate supply of fresh vegetables 
and fruit. And there will be mighty little of 
either on the Klondike this winter. 

According to the accepted medical authority, 
scurvy is the result of an insufficient supply of 
potash salts, owing to an inadequate diet of 
fresh vegetables. But the mere administration 
of these salts will not prevent or cure the dis- 
ease, which is a dreadful one, if not checked. 



308 Klondike. 

The symptoms come on gradually, being recog- 
nized by a failure of strength and exhaustion at 
slight exertion. The countenance becomes 
sallow or dusky, eyes sunken, and constant pains 
are felt in all the muscles. After some weeks 
utter prostration ensues; the appearance is most 
haggard; great trouble is experienced with the 
mouth, sore gums and teeth falling out; the 
breath is extremely offensive; finally swellings 
and dark spots on the body, with bleeding from 
the mucous membrane; then painful, extensive 
and destructive ulcers break out on the limbs, 
finally diarrhoea, pulmonary or kidney trouble may 
give fatal result. But even in desperate cases a re- 
turn to fresh vegetable diet will cure, as will 
also, usually, lime-juice. Lime-juice has driven 
scurvy from the ocean, where it once counted its 
dead in every far-going ship's annals. It is now 
a slang term to describe an old salt. Sailors at 
sea are given a small daily allowance of lime-juice 
and they swallow it with a little water at meals. 

Pneumonia is the scourge of the country, and 
if a pioneer is unfortunate enough to be taken 
down with this disease he might as well chant 
his death song, for his bones will bleach in the 
country of everlasting snows. Consequently it 
behooves every person contemplating the trip to 
prepare for the climatic rigors of the country. 

A careless method of living is quite common 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 309 

among beginners, and soon leads to debility 
and sometimes to scurvy. Old miners have 
learned from experience to value health more 
than gold, and they therefore spare no expense 
in procuring the best and most varied outfit of 
food that can be obtained. 

In a cold, trying climate, where it is im- 
possible to get fresh vegetables and fruits, it is 
most important that the best substitutes for 
these should be provided. Nature helps to sup- 
ply these wants by growing cranberries and other 
wild fruits in abundance, but men in summer 
are usually too busy to avail themselves of these. 

The diseases met with on the Youkon are 
dyspepsia, anaemia, scurvy caused by improperly 
cooked food, sameness of diet, overwork, want of 
fresh vegetables, overheated and badly ventilated 
houses; rheumatism, pneumonia, bronchitis, 
enteritis, cystitis and other acute diseases, from 
exposure to wet and cold; debility and chronic 
disease, due to excesses. Venereal diseases are 
not uncommon. One case of typhoid fever 
occurred in Forty-Mile last fall, probably due to 
drinking water polluted with decayed vegetable 
matter. 

*'In selecting men to relieve in this country," 
says Surgeon Willis, Northwest Mounted Police, 
'I beg to submit a few remarks, some of which 
will be of assistance to the medical examiners in 
making their recommendations. 



310 Klondike. 

"Men should be sober, strong, and healthy. 
They should be practical men, able to adapt 
themselves quickly to their surroundings. 
Special care should be taken to see that their 
lungs are sound, that they are free from rheuma- 
tism and rheumatic tendency, and that their 
joints, especially knee joints, are strong and have 
never been weakened by injury, synovitis or 
other disease. It is also very important to con- 
sider their temperaments. Men should be of 
cheerful, hopeful dispositions and willing work- 
ers. Those of sullen, morose natures, although 
they may be good workers, are very apt, as soon 
as the novelty of the country wears off, to be- 
come dissatisfied, pessimistic and melancholy." 



A Ma/nual for Gold Seekers. 311 



MISCELLANEOUS. 

The timber of the country is small compared 
with that found in British Columbia, but some 
of the white spruce trees are two feet in diameter. 
The trees composing Yukon forests are white 
and black spruce, larch, birch, cottonwood and 
black pine. 

A very stout canvas canoe might be useful; 
only the cover need be taken. 

There is loose ice in the Yukon by September 
20, generally, and the river freezes over about the 
middle of October. Some seasons it remains 
open until November. The lakes on the Lewis 
branch are often frozen until June 10. 

The fish found in the lakes and streams are 
the salmon, lake trout, grayling, pike and 
sucker. 

A small party camped on any of the larger 
lakes would run little risk of starvation if pro- 
vided with a couple of good gill nets, and able 
to devote the time to use them in the late 
autumn. 



312 Klondike. 

One of the essentials of the overland trip is a 
Yukon sleigh built of hard wood, shod with 
rough steel runners. The sleigh is 7 feet 3 
inches long, but only 16 inches wide, so built as 
to be able to track the snowshoes. The cost is 
about $7. 

Compressed and dessicated foods will undoubt- 
edly be of enormous service to prospectors in the 
Yukon district. For instance, 3 pounds of com- 
pressed tea; 15 pounds of dessicated soup; 35 
pounds of evaporated potatoes; 10 pounds of 
dried apples; 4 bottles of best lime-juice, would 
undoubtedly be sufficient of such articles for one 
man, during a long Yukon winter, provided he 
had a certain amount of the usual coarse foods 
to supply the required bulk. 

It should not be forgotten that the Arctic ex- 
plorer Nansen gained 23 pounds in weight and 
kept in magnificent physical condition all through 
a long Arctic winter on a diet of fat bear's meat, 
without vegetables or other luxuries. 

The Esquimo kayayk is 13 feet long, 28 
inches wide, and 15 inches deep. The frame 
weighs 16 pounds, the canvas or skin cover 14 
pounds. If the canvas be used it will require 6 
pounds of paint to make it water-tight, or better 
still a mixture of paraffin and tallow may replace 
the paint. 



A Manual for Gold Seekers. 313 

Gold is valued as follows: 

1 oz. Troy pure gold is worth $ 20.67 

1 dwt. Troy 1.03 

1 grain Troy 0.04^ 

1 oz. Avoirdupois 18.84 

1 lb. Avoirdupois 301.37 

1 ton (2,000 lbs.) 602,737.20 



THE END. 



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